Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You
by cpneb
Summary: Pandaroo's tale, told from his heart of gold. A joint tale by cpneb and jakt, driven by the power of imagination. First of the post-Graduation stories, and the opening of the Birth, and Rebirth arc. Chapter 7: Worked my fingers to the bone....
1. 0: a million miles away from me

_**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

Disclaimer/Author's Notes: Kim Possible and all the characters of the show are owned by the Disney Company. The original lyrics to the songs referenced in this story and the music are the property of the respective authors, artists and labels. All other characters can be blamed on the author (he, however, is not responsible for all of their actions at all times, being barely responsible for himself most of the time).

This is a strictly not-for-profit, just-for-fun work.

Enjoy! Please read and review.

**A/N Forward: **

This began as a thought in both the heads of cpneb and kt (of jakt). A few phone calls, some emails, and the idea came brought forth into production.

This joint project between cpneb and jakt is the direct result of the request from a certain eleven year old; resistance was futile, indeed, as one simple question became the opening of the _**Birth, and Rebirth**_ arc.

cpneb will present the main story line, while jakt will presents other major components of the story as it is told.

"Let the adventure begin."

-----

Prologue: **A million miles away from me...**

-----

I woke up sore.

I felt a breeze passing right through me.

I was cold, but I couldn't shiver.

It was dark, and the bed was hard, like concrete.

Where was Kim?

I feel like I was stabbed in the gut.

Now, I remember:

I was.

Stabbed in the gut, that is.

I was lying on the bed, waiting where Kim had placed me after she hugged and kissed me before she headed out to her high school graduation ceremonies. There was a bright light, a loud noise, an explosion (or series of explosions, I don't remember which), and I was flying without Ron's help.

Unfortunately, everything around me was flying, as well, and as I landed other things and people landed around and on top of me, and I blacked out. I dreamt that Kim was flying into the air, and Ron was trying to hold onto her, but he couldn't.

**KIM!** What's wrong? Why are you flying into the air? What's pulling you up?

This is not good.

Kim's scared, and I can't help her much.

I woke up when I heard the huge noise came from the sky, and the winds blew everything off of me. The winds blew her off of me.

Thank goodness: Ann was heavy.

No, not her, thank goodness: Raggedy Ann, Kim's other friend from before me.

Why was she on top of me, and why was it so dark, and why was the bed so hard?

I felt a sharp pain as I was impaled by a sky creature; and I could feel my insides spilling out. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't

**Kim!**

**Where are you?**

Whatever impaled me pulled out suddenly, and I felt violated, empty, and it hurt really, really bad.

I'm sorry; I've been such a poor host: I forgot to introduce myself. Please forgive me; I don't know where my manners went: Mother and Kim would both be upset with me. My official name is Ailuropoda melanoleuca macropus rufus, but, for obvious reasons, Kim calls me by my short name:

Pandaroo. I like it, and I like her. No, that's not entirely correct: I love Kim, and Kim loves me, too. I know it; I can feel it.

I know it sounds silly to introduce one's self, especially after you've been impaled, but I had to think about something else, or the pain would blind me. The pain was more than just a bit unnerving.

IT HURTS!!!!

But, over the pain, I can feel Kim: she's scared, and her hands and feet are locked, somehow.

-----

Why could I, can I feel her?

I have no idea, but I've been able to feel her since Ron handed me to her, years ago, when I was new, right out of the box. She touched me, held me, and I knew I was loved, immediately and fully. She gently placed me on the couch and hugged him so tight, I thought he was gonna pass out! The hug enough was enough to cut off his oxygen, but the source could push him over the edge.

Kim skinned her knee a few days after she came into my life and I into hers, and I had feelings I'd never felt before in my short time with her. She came up to her room with the huge bandage on her knee, her face still moist with dried tears, and the bandage was at the same spot on her body that I was feeling the strange feelings on mine. This happened two more times before I figured out what was happening.

I also figured out that I could help take a little of her pain away when she hugged me. I didn't mind doing that: after all, she loved me, and I loved her, and what are we supposed to do for those we love but just that: help them by sharing their pain? Shared pain is diminished, after all.

-----

Let's pray for no water, no rain, this time…

No dogs, please…

I don't want to die…

-----

Kimberly Ann Possible, at age four, was a little holy terror, driving off every babysitter she ever had after only one visit - until she met Cynthia and Carlos Garcia. They were fraternal twins, and they helped guide her in her young life, helping her to begin to control that temper that she had and channel it into other outlets: drawing, singing, even starting her in beginning tumbling.

Kim loved them, and the loved her. I liked Cynthia and Carlos, especially Cynthia: it didn't hurt that she absolutely adored me!

Kim, by age six, had gone from holy terror to a precocious child; she was cute enough to make her remaining feistiness an endearing trait. Her red hair was almost the color of Raggedy Ann's, but it was much softer, fuller, and a lot less stringy. Her smile would light up a room, and her pout was already legendary with Ron and the other kids at kindergarten and first grade. But it was her eyes, I think, that made her extra-special. Emerald green, they were, and they shone with so much love and goodness that I was in awe from the first time I saw them. I felt like she was looking right through me with those eyes: that first look she gave me when she picked me up from the box.

She took me to first grade for show and tell, and her friend Bonnie Rockwaller squealed with happiness. It seems that Bonnie had always wanted a Cuddlebuddy, but she hadn't been able to convince her parents to get one for her. When she found out that Ron had given me to Kim, she cried: for most of the rest of the day, she sniffled and kept trying to convince Ron to get her a KangaCat, to no avail. I think that that was the beginning of Bonnie's hatred of Ron and Kim, especially Ron: she still got along with Kim for awhile, until later.

I spent a lot of time in the room either by myself (without Kim, that is) or in her arms as she slept. That was my favorite time: being held by Kim, feeling her dreams flow through her body, helping to keep her safe and secure.

All of this was good, until she met him, and he drove her to distraction, because he wasn't him….

-----

Why is it so cold? It's almost summertime.

I don't want to die…

No, you can't cry, PR! You have to be brave. For Ron, for Raggedy Ann, and for Kim: I have to be brave.

I'm scared, Kim.

Please, Kim, hurry back…I need you…

I want to be brave, but it's hard to be courageous when your guts are on the sidewalk.

I'm scared….

Kim, you can do it: you can get free.

Flowers?

What's so funny about flowers, Kim, and why are you smiling so big?

Hurry, Kim.

I don't want to die, all alone, out here, in the dark.

I don't want to die.

I'm scared, Kim.

I'm cold, so cold…

Please, find me…save me…

Please, Kim…

Please….

-----

**Author's afterward:**

-----

A quick note from the story's protagonist:

I, Pandaroo, have authorized the following:

cpneb, to tell my story, what happened to me during Kim's graduation;

jakt, to write some of my more memorable stories about Kim and me, through the years.

A couple of quick notes: Kim will never admit it to anyone, but she loves the Frankie Valli song, and I like it, as well, so you'll see it referenced by my two storytellers, cpneb and jakt.

I have been on many of Kim's adventures around Middleton, and I thought that you might find some of these tales of interest; they were to me, at least, when they occurred. So, to quote an old Cuddle Buddy friend: "Let the adventure begin."

-----

Next, on _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

Kim cocked her head slightly. "Do you think of everything in terms of command and delegate?"

"Not everything."

They looked at each other for a long moment, and he saw something in her emerald eyes…something that beckoned to him.

He reached across and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her to him. She fell to the ground with a startled cry of exclamation. For a moment, he felt her body go limp against him, and he brought her face to his, pressing his mouth against hers. He felt something electric pass between them…

And then he felt her knee in the pit of his stomach.

Next, on _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

**Chapter 1 – The First of Many PandaRoo Memories**

Thank you, to all of you, for supporting us on this new journey.

Thanks again for reading, and please review.

-----

All Rights Reserved. Kim Possible Characters © The Walt Disney Company, USA.

9/6/2007

Idea by K.T. and cpneb. Story by K.T, J.A. and cpneb.

Thanks to jakt for the beta. Their suggestions and thoughts are timely and appreciated, as always.


	2. 1: you were fifth grade, I was, too…

_**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

Disclaimer/Author's Notes: Kim Possible and all the characters of the show are owned by the Disney Company. The original lyrics to the songs referenced in this story and the music are the property of the respective authors, artists and labels. All other characters can be blamed on the author (he, however, is not responsible for all of their actions at all times, being barely responsible for himself most of the time).

This is a strictly not-for-profit, just-for-fun work.

Enjoy! Please read and review.

**A/N Forward: **

This began as a thought in both the heads of cpneb and kt (of jakt). A few phone calls, some emails, and the idea came brought forth into production.

This joint project between cpneb and jakt is the direct result of the request from a certain eleven year old; resistance was futile, indeed, as one simple question became the opening of the _**Birth, and Rebirth**_ arc.

cpneb will present the main story line, while jakt will presents other major components of the story as it is told.

"Let the adventure begin."

-----

Chapter 1: **you were fifth grade; I was, too….**

-----

'I am never forgetting the day' (sue me, I had Kim's Dad's taste in music: I like Tom Lehrer) I went on my first picnic lunch with Kim. I was so excited to go along. She had packed a picnic lunch and had placed me inside the basket with it. It was a day that I have never forgotten.

Kim and Walter were seated up on a grassy knoll overlooking a particularly lovely stretch of Middleton Park. The picnic basket sat next to them, the contents scattered about the ground around them. I sat on top of the picnic basket.

As I watched the pair, much of the time they had eaten in silence. Every so often Kim would look up at Walter and either frown or smile. He had the distinct feeling that they were having a conversation without a word being spoken or, for that matter, without him even being fully aware of what was being said.

The statement that she now uttered broke what was just about the longest silence of the afternoon.

"I hope Daddy wasn't too hard on you."

"Nothing I couldn't handle," he said easily. When he said that, she laughed in a manner that he found very peculiar. "Why did you laugh that way?"

"Well, it's the way you responded. I asked a question about how something made you feel. And your basic response was to make it clear that the situation was something within your control. Something that no boy has ever felt like after talking with my Father and his black-hole lecture to them."

He stared at her uncomprehendingly. "So?"

"So, not everything has to be defined in terms of whether you can handle it or not. Sometimes it's enough to acknowledge that a situation has occurred and that you're aware of it."

"That doesn't seem like it would accomplish all that much, Kim."

"Why not, Walter?"

He lowered himself onto the grass, propping up his head with one hand. "Just acknowledging that a sitch exists is rarely enough. You have to deal with it."

Kim loved it when Walter used the "sitch" word. In fact he had let her use it as her trademark expression from the first time he said it to her at school. She liked it so much the word had literally become a part of her permanent vocabulary. It was now a well established 'Kim word' at school these days and he let her take all the credit for it.

"That's not true. What about our parents' rules for dating? Didn't that tell you we're not to get that involved?"

"What it tells me is the preferred way of handling a particular type of sitch…namely one involving us like right here and now. But it still boils down to the idea that every sitch must be dealt with in someway…even if occasionally the method of dealing with the sitch is to keep our hands off each other."

"I see." She lifted the napkin off her lap and folded it carefully, replacing it in the other side of the picnic basket. "Is control very important for you, Walter?"

"Not letting things get _out_ of control is very important, Kim. There's a difference."

"And what might that be?"

"The difference is that you can have a specific sitch with specific parameters…and as long as the elements within that sitch don't go beyond those parameters, then everything is fine. You don't have to do much beyond sitting back and letting things run their course. This is as opposed to having to be in control, where you are handling every element personally every step of the way. It's a bad way to live if you do. Shows a lack of ability to command and delegate."

Kim cocked her head slightly. "Do you think of everything in terms of command and delegate?"

"Not everything."

They looked at each other for a long moment, and Walter saw something in her emerald eyes…something that beckoned to him.

He reached across, grabbed her by the arm, and pulled her to him. She fell to the ground with a startled cry of exclamation. For a moment he felt her body go limp against him, and he brought her face to his, pressed his mouth against hers. He felt something electric pass between them…

And, then, he felt her knee in the pit of his stomach.

Walter gasped and rolled away, clutching his belly and moaning softly. He came up gasping, and saw Kim smoothing out her dress, looking utterly composed.

He sucked in air gratefully and tried to force the pain to go away. Kim, for her part, reached into the basket and pulled out a brownie. "Dessert?" she asked, with a smile.

"Wh…why did you do that?" he managed to get out.

"Walter, why are you asking obvious questions?" She held out the brownie to him. "I mean, I'm not asking you why you mauled me just now. I think it's fairly self-evident. I think my reason for stopping you is equally self-evident. So tell me…do you still feel in control?"

"Not…particularly." The soreness was just starting to recede.

"Now you see…that's just how I felt a moment ago. Lovemaking, Walter, is when two people voluntarily decide to give control over to the partner. I wasn't voluntarily relinquishing anything. So I needed to reclaim it quickly."

"You …could simply have said no."

She frowned at him. "I did."

"No, you didn't"

"I distinctly remember-"

"You didn't. If you'd have said no, I'd have stopped." Slowly he sat up, still rubbing his sore middle. "That I can assure you."

Kim's eyebrows knitted together, a puzzled expression on her face.

"I was quite sure I…"

"You know what?" said Walter, pointing at her. "You may have thought you said it…but you didn't. And maybe that's because you didn't really want to. For a moment there, you weren't resisting. As a matter of fact, you were pretty darn encouraging. I'll tell you something, Kimberly Ann Possible, you're so certain that you know my mind. Well, I don't even think you know your own."

"Is **that** a fact?"

"Yes."

"Well, then, just answer me this…"

He waited for the question. "Yeah."

"Do you want the brownie or not?"

He shook his head in confusion. "That's the question?"

Even she looked puzzled by it. "Yes."

"No. No brownie, thanks. Between the filling meal and your knee, my stomach's pretty much finished for the afternoon."

"Okay. Fine then." Never taking her eyes off Walter, and regarding him with a very suspicious air…probably because she wasn't sure herself how he was making her feel…Kim ate Walter's brownie along with her own. Walter smiled inwardly but said nothing as he watched her eat.

Finally, he stated: "it's a shame you haven't got a mind of your own."

"I have a mind of my own," Kim shot back hotly, her temper flaring with her auburn ponytail blowing a bit in the wind. "It's hardly my fault if my feelings concur with that of my father, and mother now, is it?"

"You're right, you're right. I'm the poor dumb boy who barely understands what's going through his own head, and you're the all-wise cheerleader who knows everything. Does that pretty much cover it?"

Making a sound of frustration, Kim began shoving all picnic materials back into the basket. "This was stupid," she muttered partly to herself. "I don't know why I let myself be talked into this."

"Because you wanted to be talked into it."

"Oh, nonsense."

"You know what your problem is, Kim?"

"Yes. My problem is you."

"No." Walter drew himself closer to her and hunkered down in front of her. When she couldn't look at him, he took her chin in his hands and brought her around to face him. "**Your** problem is that you overanalyze everything. You are so darn used to studying feelings, and thinking about feelings, and contemplating feelings, that you have no idea of how to just go with feelings."

"And, **you**," she shot back, pushing his hand away, "can only go with feelings. You're going to be some hotshot famous guy some day. Someone who's incapable of studying a sitch and deciding what to do about it calmly and rationally. I bet you'll never ask anyone for their opinions. I bet you'll never look for suggestions. You'll just do what you want, when you want, on impulse, because your feelings tell you to do so, and you'll just drag people along with you, and heaven help them if you're wrong.

He sat back on his heels. He stared at her for a moment, then grinned like a lovesick 12-year-old. "You must really like me if you get that worked up over me."

"Oh, you're **intolerable**." She shook her head and her ponytail looked like a bullwhip striking out at a target…Walter.

She picked up the picnic basket with me and started to walk, her dress swishing around her knees. Walter got to his feet and walked along side next to us.

"And I bet you don't believe in love at first sight," he said challengingly.

She didn't even glance at him. "Now you're saying you love me?"

"No, I'm not saying that. I'm asking about the idea in principle. Do you believe in love at first sight?"

He fully expected that she would say no, so he was surprised when she slowly came to a halt and turned to look at him full in the face, her eyes large, thoughtful and beautiful.

Then she turned and walked off in another direction. Puzzled, he followed her.

The terrain got more steep and hilly, and she put down the picnic basket and used her hands to help pull herself up, with me in tow. He followed her, unsure of what was happening, but reluctant to say or do anything that would possibly stop her. He wanted to see what she was up to.

Eventually Kim reached what appeared to be a peak, and she sat down with me. Carefully, meticulously, she arranged her dress and sat me between her legs. Walter climbed up next to her, and his breath caught in his throat.

It was a stunning vista. The earlier view at the picnic paled in comparison. The sky was now a pale orange as the sun started to set and the high purple mountains in the distance stood as silent sentinels guarding all that was under their gaze. Long, untamed blades of green grass sprouted here and there, on the one hand appearing random, but on the other, adding to the overall look and feel of the place as if it had been carefully planned.

"I like to come here to think. It's one of my favorite places."

"What do you think about?"

"Love at first sight." She paused, then smiled. "Yes, I do believe in it."

"Well, now I must admit: I'm surprised. That's hardly the sign of a rational, non-impulsive mind. Love at first sight is the ultimate leap of faith."

"Nothing about it is particularly rational," she admitted. "I'd suppose you'd say my rationale is more romantic than anything else."

"And what's your rationale, may I ask?"

At first Kim said nothing, as if trying to figure out the best way to put her thoughts. "I think that, to some degree, all of us are fractured souls. Cut in half. And we wander through life looking for the rest of ourselves. And sometimes we're fortunate enough to meet someone who possesses, in themselves, the part of ourselves that we've been missing. We may not realize it on the conscious level, but definitely on a subconscious level. We see in someone else…something of ourselves."

She held her hands up in front of her, palms facing each other. "That's why sometimes you meet someone and you just immediately feel comfortable with them. You feel like you've known them all your life. The reason is that they're a part of you, and you're a part of them. You're soul mates. You…fit." She interlaced her fingers. "And once you've fit together, nothing can pull you apart unless you let go." She released her grip, drawing her hands apart.

"And how did you develop this…" Walter coughed politely. "This concept?"

She smiled gamely. "It seemed the most reasonable explanation for why my parents came together. I mean, no rational person would have seen them as any sort of workable couple. Yet my mother claimed that the moment they met they just…just knew." She shrugged. "So who knows?"

"But that's kind of sad, really."

"Why?" she asked, puzzled,

"Because, since you're such a rational type, if you ever met your 'soul mate,' you'd probably intellectualize him to death. How could any sort of pure romantic notion stand up to being rationally beat to death? You'd never follow your impulse."

"Love at first sight is hardly the sort of thing that happens all the time, Walter. My attitude is different than yours. You always follow your impulse. And you have good impulses, I'm sure, by and large. You're confident, and that's a requirement in your life. But it's not the kind of mind-set I'm used to. I doubt there's any sort of future for us."

He slid closer to her and then said, "Change me."

He spoke with such conviction and such certainty that Kim actually felt an unusual sensation…her cheeks were burning.

Walter noticed the flush in an instant and then said, using precisely the right tone, "I didn't read your mind just now: I hazarded a guess. All you did, just now, was confirm my assumption."

And he looked at her with such challenge in his eyes that he took her hand and squeezed it firmly…and his lips touch hers and then it happened…

Their braces locked, and they now found themselves in a sitch that they couldn't solve.

Unable to really talk, both knew what they had to do. They carefully got up and walked, lip-locked, back down the peak. Kim kept me in her right hand. I was the only real security that she had. She wasn't going to abandon me in her hour of need and I wasn't going to abandon her.

They made it all the way to the park without being seen and, as luck would have it, they came upon a lone familiar person swinging by himself on playground with his naked mole rat buddy. Seeing Kim and Walter in this position was rather embarrassing for him, but he quickly understood their predicament and placed a well-timed call to his mother. Ron accompanied them all the way to the orthodontist who, eventually, freed the lip-locked pair.

Ron's mother dropped Walter off at his home. Walter never said another word to Kim after that day for the time his family remained in Middleton. It was a trauma that would take almost five years to get over. For Kim it was a secret and embarrassment that she would keep buried, never talk about or write about in her journal.

Ron, on the other hand, was an unknown factor, and yet Kim trusted him, implicitly. As always the gentleman, he had his mother drive them back to the park, gathered up Kim's picnic basket, and had her home before dinner.

Walking Kim to the door he smiled. "Don't worry KP. I've sworn Mom to secrecy, and I'll never tell."

"I know, Ron. You're the best friend a girl could ever have." She turned and gave him the largest hug he ever had received from her. "Thanks for everything."

He blushed and slowly walked back to the car. He no longer felt alone like at the park. She had really acknowledged his existence as a friend; that made his heart feel good.

As Kimberly Ann Possible entered her home that night something imprinted on her heart. Ron Stoppable would always be there watching her back…anytime, anywhere.

She took me upstairs and placed me on my usual spot on her bed. "Thanks Pandaroo for being with me today. You're always there for me, just like Ron." And I would be, too, as long as she needed me.

-----

**Author's afterward:**

-----

A quick note from the story's protagonist:

I, Pandaroo, have authorized the following:

cpneb, to tell my story, what happened to me during Kim's graduation;

jakt, to write some of my more memorable stories about Kim and me, through the years.

A couple of quick notes: Kim will never admit it to anyone, but she loves the Frankie Valli song, and I like it, as well, so you'll see it referenced by my two storytellers, cpneb and jakt.

I have been on many of Kim's adventures around Middleton, and I thought that you might find some of these tales of interest; they were to me, at least, when they occurred. So, to quote an old Cuddle Buddy friend: "Let the adventure begin."

-----

Next, on _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

Kim hugged me all that night as she cried

"Why did he have to be such a jerk, Pandaroo?

"Why couldn't Walter have just kissed me on the lips, with his dang mouth closed?

"I was soo embarrassed," and she shed a tear or two more, then she grew quiet.

"Ron…he protected me.

"He didn't have to, but he did, anyway. And, he told me he would keep my secret, even from Daddy!

"He's so brave," she smiled, then laughed. "Of course, he hasn't gotten one of Daddy's 'black hole' speeches, either.

"Ron, boyfriend material?" she was silent for a moment. "Justine sure thinks so; she spends as much time as she can around him at recess, until the teacher runs her off to the rest of us girls.

"And, Ron doesn't even know," Kim tittered, and she laughed as she tossed me into the air and caught me, holding me tightly against her chest.

"He doesn't even know," she smiled, and I agreed with her as her cheek grew moist with her tears of loss.

'You don't know, either, do you, Kim?

'You don't have the slightest clue that either of us would give our lives for you.

'Seriously; that's how much he already loves you, Kim; as much as I love you.'

I wanted to reach up and touch her moist cheek, but a stuffed animal can't do that.

So, I just sat there as she cried for the love she thought she'd lost, and for the love she didn't even know she had.

-----

Next, on _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

**Chapter 3 – ****I never laid a hand on you**

Thank you, to all of you, for supporting us on this new journey.

Thanks again for reading, and please review.

-----

All Rights Reserved. Kim Possible Characters © The Walt Disney Company, USA.

9/9/2007

Idea by K.T. and cpneb. Story by K.T, J.A. and cpneb.

Thanks to cpneb for the beta. His suggestions and thoughts are timely and appreciated, as always.


	3. 2: I never laid a hand on you

_**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

Disclaimer/Author's Notes: Kim Possible and all the characters of the show are owned by the Disney Company. The original lyrics to the songs referenced in this story and the music are the property of the respective authors, artists and labels. All other characters can be blamed on the author (he, however, is not responsible for all of their actions at all times, being barely responsible for himself most of the time).

This is a strictly not-for-profit, just-for-fun work.

Enjoy! Please read and review.

**A/N Forward: **

This began as a thought in both the heads of cpneb and kt (of jakt). A few phone calls, some emails, and the idea came brought forth into production.

This joint project between cpneb and jakt is the direct result of the request from a certain eleven year old; resistance was futile, indeed, as one simple question became the opening of the _**Birth, and Rebirth**_ arc.

cpneb will present the main story line, while jakt will presents other major components of the story as it is told.

"Let the adventure begin."

-----

Chapter 2 – **I never laid a hand on you**

-----

A bright light…

Well, d'oi: it's the sun, you idiot!

There's smoke in the air; it's trying to mimic night, but it's not succeeding.

There are sirens in the distance, but they're moving away from me: Good, the last thing I need is a hose-down by the Middleton Fire Department!

The morning has come, after that horrible, terrifying night… I must have passed out sometime during the night.

Look at the mess! There are houses destroyed, trees down, cars smashed…and then, there's my guts, hanging out. Yuck!

How bad is it, P?

How does it feel?

Feels like I'm about 40 per cent down (no pun intended).

NOOO!

My pouch is gone!

My pouch buddy: gone.

I'll mourn her later, if there _**is**_ a later…yes, P, there will be a later: positive attitude, guy. You are an adopted Possible, after all, and "Anything's 'Possible' for a Possible!"

Is my heart still ther?

Yeah, it's still there: I can feel it.

Good; that worried me. I didn't want to lose it; after all we've been through with Kim…that day she came home, and I thought my heart was going to break….

-----

Kim hugged me all that night as she cried

"Why did he have to be such a jerk, Pandaroo?

"Why couldn't Walter have just kissed me on the lips, with his dang mouth closed?

"I was soo embarrassed," and she shed a tear or two more, then she grew quiet.

"Ron…he protected me," she whispered.

"He didn't have to, but he did, anyway. And, he told me he would keep my secret, even from Daddy!

"He's so brave," she smiled, then laughed. "Of course, he hasn't gotten one of Daddy's 'black hole' speeches, either.

"Ron, boyfriend material?" she was silent for a moment. "Justine sure thinks so; she spends as much time as she can around him at recess, until the teacher runs her off to the rest of us girls.

"And, Ron doesn't even know," Kim tittered, and she laughed as she tossed me into the air and caught me, holding me tightly against her chest.

"He doesn't even know," she smiled, and I agreed with her as her cheek grew moist with her tears of loss.

'You don't know, either, do you, Kim?

'You don't have the slightest clue that either of us would give our lives for you.

'Seriously; that's how much he already loves you, Kim; as much as I love you.'

I wanted to reach up and touch her moist cheek, but a stuffed animal can't do that.

So, I just sat there as she cried for the love she thought she'd lost, and for the love she didn't even know she had.

My heart ached all night, even after she fell asleep, clutching me tightly.

Trust me, Ron: Sleeping and being held by Kimberly Ann Possible is not to be ever taken for granted.

-----

"Look at that house," the female voice shouted.

A familiar voice…but, no, it's not Kim.

"That's Kim's house!" Another familiar voice, but I couldn't remember whose: must be PTSD.

"Oh, my," the first voice sounded truly sad.

"Look: it's her Raggedy Ann doll, the one she had back in pre-K," the first voice spoke again, and she sounded like she was going to cry. She must be close, if she found Ann.

"Look!" the first voice yelled, and I felt gentle hands touch my legs. I couldn't see the person's face, but I felt a tear on my leg.

"Are you crying?" the first voice asked, and the person nodded.

"This is Kim's Pandaroo, Tara," she replied, and Tara choked back a sob. "She's up there, somewhere, Ron's gone after her, and he's down here, almost dead and all alone."

I heard a RIIIIIIIIIIIIP of cloth, and Tara yelled "What are you doing?"

"He's hurt, Tara," and I felt these wonderful hands lift me and place me on a soft piece of cloth. "He needs medical help, and I can't get him to a center anytime soon," and she gently moved my stuffing back from its spread-out area over my chest.

I'm not as cold, anymore. My heart feels covered, once again.

YEA!!!

I'd do the 'happy dance,' but Ron's not here to help.

Wow, her hands are so soft, so gentle: she must be a Cuddler.

"That was your new blouse," Tara said to the lady, and she laughed back at Tara!

"So? Kim's gonna need a whole new wardrobe: just look, Tara," and she gently pulled the cloth around me to hold my stuffing in, and she tied a tiny strip around me to hold the cloth to my body.

"There," she announced. "It's not perfect, Pandaroo, but it'll have to do until I can get you to a **Cuddl**-_**E.R.**_ facility," and Tara laughed at her.

"You're a Cuddler, too?" Tara asked, and the person smiled.

I saw her face for the first time, and I couldn't believe it:

Bonnie Rockwaller was my Angel!

I saw her blouse, and she had ripped the arm off to wrap me. I knew it was soft, but it was silk!

Kim's and Ron's nemesis, from First Grade through most of high school, had literally ripped the clothes off her own body to protect me.

Why had she done what she did: ripping her blouse for me, especially after everything before? But, then, I remembered what happened last summer, what Kim told me after she came back from Montana….

-----

"Bonnie's changed, Pandaroo," Kim came in, almost dancing.

"She's going to try to go back to being herself, once again, not that person that she'd become: the Bonnie of Pre-K and K, not the 1st-grade Bonnie who was jealous of you!" She picked me up and spun me in the air, laughing as she did.

I love Kim's laugh: it makes my heart sing when she laughs like this.

"Rebecca Jane did or said something to her, up at the ranch: I don't know what she did, but Bonnie has been nice the rest of the time.

"She even kissed Ron Reger today," Kim laughed, "and I thought he was going to pass out in the hall!"

"This is **sooo** good, Pandaroo!" She tossed me into the air and caught me, then hugged me tight.

I like Kim's hugs…

-----

"Let's go, Tara," Bonnie announced as she knelt and carefully picked me up.

"I've got you, Pandaroo," she whispered, and she leaned over and kissed my forehead. "We'll take good care of you: you'll see."

"What are you going to do, Bonnie?"

Bonnie stopped, and she shook for a moment.

"I'm going to sneak him into my house and let him stay until I can figure out how to reach Wade: he'll know what to do" Bonnie replied as she began to take slow, careful steps, taking care not to jar me as she walked.

"Why do you have to sneak him in?"

"My parents don't like CuddleBuddies, and they would never get me one, even after I begged for several years. I have no idea what they have against these loveable guys, but that's the way they feel. I'll be safe, though: Dad will be busy with the Emergency, and Mom will be volunteering at the hospital. The SFH won't be around: they'll be out trying to score.

"SFH?"

"Sisters from Hades," and Tara laughed.

Her laugh was as beautiful as her, but Bonnie was my friend forever.

She had saved me from I-didn't-know-what.

"Do you think Kim and Ron will beat them?" Tara asked.

"I just hope Ron finds her, Tara," Bonnie replied.

"Me, too," Tara replied dreamily, and now I remembered who Tara was: she had that major crush on Ron before! Ron had told me about her one day while he was waiting for Kim to come up from helping her mom.

"I wonder if we'll ever graduate," Bonnie commented as she kept her careful pace.

"Oh, I think we've _**already**_ graduated, Bonnie," Tara replied. "We just haven't had the formal ceremony: something about an 'Alien Attack Delay,'" and both Tara and Bonnie giggled.

"Here we are," I don't know how long we'd been walking, but Bonnie opened a door, and we went up some stairs and down a hall to her room.

"Pandaroo, I hate to do this, but I need to hide you from the SFH and the 'rents, OK?" She talked as she took two shoe boxes, ripped the ends out, and made me a bed, removing her blouse an placing it inside to pad the box.

'After spending the night on cold concrete, Bonnie, the shoe boxes, by themselves, will be heaven,' I wanted to tell her.

"There," She placed me in the boxes, then kissed my forehead. "I hope you're comfortable, and I hope you're ok being in the dark in the closet," she picked up the nested boxes and placed me in the back of her closet, surrounding me with cheer pom-poms piled to hide me.

"As soon as I find Wade or Kim, we'll get you to the **Cuddl**-_**E.R.**_ facility, ok?" She closed the closet door, and I smiled inside.

'There's a star up there for you, Bonnie Rockwaller. Thank you, Bonnie, for everything,' and I relaxed for the first time in a long time, but then I felt Kim's scream.

_**NOOOOOO!**_

Kim's hanging upside-down, and she's barely conscious.

What have they done to her?

Why is Ron floating?

This doesn't look good, not good at all….

-----

**Author's afterward:**

-----

A quick note from the story's protagonist:

I, Pandaroo, have authorized the following:

cpneb, to tell my story, what happened to me during Kim's graduation;

jakt, to write some of my more memorable stories about Kim and me, through the years.

A couple of quick notes: Kim will never admit it to anyone, but she loves the Frankie Valli song, and I like it, as well, so you'll see it referenced by my two storytellers, cpneb and jakt.

I have been on many of Kim's adventures around Middleton, and I thought that you might find some of these tales of interest; they were to me, at least, when they occurred. So, to quote an old Cuddle Buddy friend: "Let the adventure begin."

-----

Next, on _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

She started to rise from the bench and he pulled her back down again. "Kim, you're not even trying. You said, you were going to cooperate and try to understand my art today."

"I'm sorry," she sighed. "I'll try, all right?"

The problem was, every time she looked at him, she kept thinking about trying to see him in a Speedo at the lake, and she would grin inside at the mental picture.. But she knew that such unguarded thoughts were only going to get her into trouble. So, first, she thought of her dad's response to her vision, the she gamely focused on the picture again.

It was swirls. Splashes of color. No matter how long or how intently she looked at it, it still looked like jumbled paints and nothing more.

"You're trying too hard."

She blew through her lips in exasperation. "First you tell me I'm not trying at all, and now you tell me I'm trying too hard. Now which is it?" She looked at the painting. "Would you mind telling me what it is you want of me, Josh?"

Then she felt two strong fingers at the base of her skull, squeezing together and massaging her. Josh's arm moved in a steady, circular motion.

She started to feel tension that she didn't even know she had ebb from her. She was glad that she couldn't see her face, because she had the distinct, detached feeling that she wore a rather goofy and satisfied expression at the moment.

**Chapter 3: ****Till we grew into, the 'me and you…'**

Thank you, to all of you, for supporting us on this new journey.

Thanks again for reading, and please review.

-----

All Rights Reserved. Kim Possible Characters © The Walt Disney Company, USA.

9/15/2007

Idea by K.T. and cpneb. Story by K.T, J.A. and cpneb.

Thanks to jakt for the beta. Their suggestions and thoughts are timely and appreciated, as always.


	4. 3: Till we grew into, the ‘me and you…’

_**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

Disclaimer/Author's Notes: Kim Possible and all the characters of the show are owned by the Disney Company. The original lyrics to the songs referenced in this story and the music are the property of the respective authors, artists and labels. All other characters can be blamed on the author (he, however, is not responsible for all of their actions at all times, being barely responsible for himself most of the time).

This is a strictly not-for-profit, just-for-fun work.

Enjoy! Please read and review.

**A/N Forward: **

This began as a thought in both the heads of cpneb and kt (of jakt). A few phone calls, some emails, and the idea came brought forth into production.

This joint project between cpneb and jakt is the direct result of the request from a certain eleven year old; resistance was futile, indeed, as one simple question became the opening of the _**Birth, and Rebirth**_ arc.

cpneb will present the main story line, while jakt will presents other major components of the story as it is told.

"Let the adventure begin."

**Chapter 3: ****Till we grew into, the 'me and you…'****  
**

"The next major crush in my best friend's life was Josh Mankey. She was so infatuated with him that she almost busted her seams which, fortunately for her, she does not have. For almost two years they had an actual romance in which Josh received maximum adoration from Kim. Out of all her love interests, he was the main object of her 'calf love' affections at the tender ages of 15 and 16. While Ron was disapproving of their relationship, at first, he later grew to accept it, over time. Kim's infatuation with Josh died down just before the 'Middleton Days' celebration their sophomore year; this allowed Kim and Ron to slowly get together and become a couple.

"As I recall, Josh was a mellow and nonchalant young man, an excellent artist and even-better musician, and Kim would go on, and on, and on about him. And then, one fateful day…"

The Middleton museum of art was a tall, impressive building, and extremely ornate. Josh and Kim stood outside as he explained to her the history of the structure, the design work and theory that had gone into it. He spoke at length for some minutes.

Kim, for her part, was happy that Josh was once again his old self, and that the outfit he was wearing made him look like 'Adonis'. She was almost drooling but kept her composure. Much of what he said barely registered until, finally, he turned to her and said, "Why am I bothering?"

"What?"

"You don't seem at all interested in what I'm saying, Kim. I'm trying to explain to you why this building is, in and of itself, a work of art."

"And I've tried to explain to you, Josh, that I can only appreciate one 'work of art' at a time."

"And right now, you're still appreciating me."

"I guess so, yes," she grinned and managed to keep herself from blushing...barely.

Josh sighed, took her by the hand, and said, "come on." He pulled her toward the building and through the large columned doors.

Inside, there was music playing, loud and sonorous, and it sounded like organ music to Kim.

Indeed, it was coming from a large, multiple-piped organ in the middle of the rotunda. Seated in circles around the musician organist, various people from all walks of life, who were listening to the music, their eyes closed, their faces blissful. Kim looked around and tried to get a feeling for what was going on. The music sounded okay to her, but it was nothing particularly special. She couldn't understand why it seemed to be affecting the listeners so deeply.

She looked at Josh, and he too, appeared to be totally taken by it. His eyes were half-lidded, and he was swaying slightly to the tones. Kim whispered, "Are you all right?"

He opened his eyes and looked at her. His stare was almost incredulous, as if he couldn't believe that she was still capable of speech. "This is music for the soul, for your soul," he whispered. "Listen to it. Let it pervade you. What does it say to you?"

She listened. She let it pervade her.

"What's it supposed to say?" she asked.

With an irritated noise, he pulled at her and dragged her off down a large hallway. The air in the cavernous building was cool. Kim looked around, trying to find something that would be startling and revolutionary to her, something that would give her innermost thoughts a voice and fill her with understanding. Nothing in particular seemed to leap out at her, however.

Josh led her into a room and made a sweeping gesture.

Paintings hung on the walls. All of them appeared to be what Kim would term "abstract"…that is, they didn't seem to be pictures of anything in particular. In front of every single painting was a small bench, and in a number of instances, people were seated on the benches staring at the works.

"I come here once a week," whispered Josh. His voice, although it was as low as he could make it, still attracted glances from the occupants of the room. Silent communion was the norm here. People looked from him to Kim and then back to him, and their expressions changed from mild irritation to understanding tolerance…and even, in a couple of cases, a degree of pity, much to Kim's annoyance.

"Once a week? For Heaven's sake, why?" She whispered: Kim was entirely perplexed why Josh would do something like that.

He lead her over to one work in particular, which was concentric splashes of red, blue, green, white, black, and a couple of colors that Kim didn't recognize. Here, in one of the more far-off sections of the room, no one else was sitting nearby for the moment.

"Because, Kim," he said quietly, "it's one of the methods I use to stay in touch with myself and my art form." At her blank expression, he continued gamely, "In order to fully understand others and paint those understandings, you must learn to understand yourself. Only by being in touch with what motivates you can you then grasp what motivates others and then paint what you feel."

"I kind of studied this at the dojo. The topic was called abstracts of concealment."

"Concealing who?"

"Myself and others."

"Yes, well, you see…here, the only person you're not trying to conceal is yourself. Now, I want you to look at the painting and tell me what it says to you."

"This is supposed to talk to me, too? Can't anything in this museum keep its mouth shut?"

Her comment came out sounding a bit more sarcastic then she would have liked, but Josh appeared undeterred. "Kim: here, in this room, artists believe in full communion. Communion with each other and with our own unique art forms. Communion with this planet on which we live. But before any of that can occur, we must have communion with ourselves.

"What's that painting called?"

He stared at her in confusion. "What?"

"What's it called? What's the name of the painting? At least I'll have some clue to what the artist was trying to put across if I know what he or she called the darn thing."

"Kim, the 'darn thing' doesn't have a name. That would be presumptuous…it would be as if the artist were trying to impose his or her own worldview upon the viewer."

"Terrific. Look, maybe we can start with another painting? Something that looks like something."

She started to rise from the bench and he pulled her back down again. "Kim, you're not even trying. You said, you were going to cooperate and try to understand my art today."

"I'm sorry," she sighed. "I'll try, all right?"

The problem was, every time she looked at him, she kept thinking about trying to see him in a Speedo at the lake, and she would grin inside at the mental picture.. But she knew that such unguarded thoughts were only going to get her into trouble. So, first, she thought of her dad's response to her vision, the she gamely focused on the picture again.

It was swirls. Splashes of color. No matter how long or how intently she looked at it, it still looked like jumbled paints and nothing more.

"You're trying too hard."

She blew through her lips in exasperation. "First you tell me I'm not trying at all, and now you tell me I'm trying too hard. Now, which is it?" She looked at the painting. "Would you mind telling me what it is you want of me, Josh?"

Then she felt two strong fingers at the base of her skull, squeezing together and massaging her. Josh's arm moved in a steady, circular motion.

She started to feel tension that she didn't even know she had ebb from her. She was glad that she couldn't see her face, because she had the distinct, detached feeling that she wore a rather goofy and satisfied expression at the moment.

"Now," he said softly, "while you're relaxing…look at the painting and tell me what you see. Learn to look below the surface, beyond the superficial. What is there to learn from the painting…and what can we learn from ourselves?"

Her head swayed back and forth in gentle rocking motions. She stared at the painting for what seemed an eternity.

"I see…"

"Yes?"

She was silent for a moment and then said, "I see…paint swirls."

Josh stopped the rubbing.

"That's it?" he said with flat disgust.

"That's it, Josh. I'm sorry." She turned to him, not sure whether to be more irritated with herself or with him. "You wouldn't want me to lie to you…and I doubt I could, even if I wanted to. I see paint swirls. Big, goopy paint swirls."

"Goopy? This is your word? Goopy?"

"I don't have much taste for abstract art. When I look at something, I like it to look like something."

He paused, his hands carefully folded across his chest. "Tell me, Kimberly Ann: as you jet around, saving the world, you inevitably run into things that don't look like anything you've ever imagined that anything could look like. What do you do in those instances? Do you decide that in those cases something or someone is inferior somehow? Or that there's something wrong with them? How do you judge the sitch? By their degree of 'goopiness?'"

"In those instances, when encountering new sitches beyond my experience, I have the Kimmunicator's sensors, scans, translators and communications device; and, if that isn't enough, I have Wade Load who can access everything on the internet. I don't have to…"

"You don't have to depend on yourself."

"Now I didn't say that, Josh."

"No you didn't. But that's what it boils down to. And believe me Kim you're going to continue to find yourself in sitches where all the devices in the world aren't going to do you a bit of good. They can guide you, but at some time you're going to have to rely on something beyond that. As a matter of fact, I'll bet that there will come a time when you will have to act in a way that is contrary to what everything is telling you…that will be contrary to what people will tell you, for that matter. And you'll have to be fully conversant in why you think what you think, because otherwise you're going to find yourself heading down the wrong road."

"As if, Josh," Kim smirked back. "What's your opinion drawn on…your experiences in saving the world!"

"I don't have to be experienced in saving the world, Kim, in order to be aware of the importance of knowing your own mind."

"Really?" She took his hand and squeezed it firmly. "And what does your mind tell you about your feelings for me? Hmmm?"

He met her gaze levelly. "It tells me that perhaps we have to begin with something a bit more fundamental than this to pull us together before our relationship draws further apart." He stood.

"Come on. We're getting out of here, Kim."

"Where are we going, Josh?"

"Back to basics," and they left the museum.

----------------------------

The tree towered over them, its trunk brown and gnarled. There were very few pine bristles on it, only a few cones remained, and its branches seemed to stretch up in several directions like it couldn't make up its mind. The trunk was so twisted that climbing up it was easy. Josh did so and gestured Kim to follow. She climbed, relieved that this was at least something that was mildly entertaining…particularly because she liked watching the play of Josh's muscles under his tee shirt.

He stopped at a point about ten feet above the ground. Large branches struck out in either direction. He sidled out onto one, and when Kim started to follow him, he shook his head and indicated that she should go in another direction. With a shrug, she did as instructed.

"Your problem, Kim, is that the demands of your body have too much sway on your mind," he said once they were perched on their opposite branches.

"What do you mean?"

"Your attraction to me, for example. Indeed, your attraction to most men, I would think. It's purely hormonal. It's being fueled entirely by your passions, which is biological, not intellectual. Trust me, I'm flattered, and I've looked at you several times in 'purely hormonal' ways," and Kim blushed. "But, you are more willing to turn your intellect over to the requirements of your biology."

"What about what I told you just after we started dating? About love at first sight being something you believe in? Where does biology figure into that?" Kim recalled that her involvement with Walter Nelson had reshaped some of her thoughts and feelings in that area…was there something else?

"It doesn't. Love at first sight is spiritual. You're too primal for that."

"You're saying"…she smirked slightly as she spoke…"that I'm incapable of falling in love with someone at first sight because I think with my glands and that automatically pushes out all higher emotions?"

"That's correct."

"Well, thanks a lot, Mr. Mankey," she snarked.

"It wasn't a compliment," he said primly. "Higher emotions are what separate us from the lower orders of life."

"Is that all?"

"Higher emotions, and table manners," he smiled, an Kim growled internally.

"Tell me, Josh, have you ever really felt a good physical attraction toward someone? Or is that just a theory to you?"

He actually laughed at that. "You really can't figure me out, can you, Kim. You think that all you have to do is smile at me, wink devilishly, overpower me with your charm and womanly wiles, and I will willingly succumb to your overwhelming charisma.

"Something like that."

"Kimberly Ann, welcome to the twenty-first century," Kim audibly groaned, and Josh laughed. "I don't know what goes on in your head…but I want more from a woman than for her to simply be a strong hero figure, and I don't want a wimp, either. I want a partner: someone who is going to stand beside me, work with me, and not give herself over to me in hot sweaty throes of passion at every whim she makes. Sometimes is good," he grinned, "but not all the time. I used to think like that, but I've grown and changed: I'm not like that, anymore."

"No, of course not." Kim was fuming at this point as she lit into Josh with a holy vengeance. "You're much too busy with your art and music and doing precisely what 'Mommy' tells you, and being precisely what she wants you to be, to let yourself be influenced by anyone as down-and-dirty as me."

His expression was not a particularly pleasant one. "Listen, do you want to do this or not?"

"Sure. Sure. You were going to show me how to separate the needs of my mind from the needs of my body."

"All right. It's very simple, really. I want you to get a solid grip on the branch, just like I'm doing." She followed his demonstration and he continued. "Then we're going to just drop off from the branch and hang on for as long as possible."

"This is a test of muscular strength…which seems kind of silly, since obviously I'm stronger with my gymnastics, cheerleading and Kung Fu fighting skills and discipline. So if this is some sort of competition…"

"The only one you're going to compete with, Kim is yourself. And furthermore, it has nothing to do with discipline or physical strength because muscles, and the body, invariably have limits, no matter how well trained they are. You reach a point that can't be surpassed. But the properly trained mind, on the other hand, has no limits. Ready? And…go."

Josh dropped down off the branch and hung there, his feet suspended more than a meter above the ground. Kim did the same.

She started at him, noticing that his toes were not pointed downward, but rather straight out. His eyes were fluttering closed as he said in a low, melodious tone, "Now…sooner or later, your fingers will want to release. Your instinct will be to fight this impulse. Do not fight it. Instead…simply ignore it. Banish it to the inner core of your being, and instead focus on something else."

"Like what?"

"Like anything. Anything that will take your mind away from your body…the shy, the clouds, birds in flight. The creation of a star. Anything to disassociate yourself from the demands of the physical. Now do what I'm doing…bring an image to mind, a focal image. Close your eyes. Breathe slowly and steadily, in through your nose, out through your mouth, like this," and he demonstrated. "Slowly, steadily, gradually…that's it."

Kim had closed her eyes, but now she turned and peered again through narrowed lids at Josh.

He seemed perfectly at ease. His chest was rising and falling so slowly that the motion was almost imperceptible.

Clear her mind. Think about something else other than the fact that her fingers were starting to ache a bit, and her upper arms were feeling a tad numb.

She thought about Josh.

She pictured him as she had first seen him in the hallway at Middleton High, happy and smiling at her.

Her mind shifted and he now stood at the lake, having just come out of the water, his body covered with thin rivulets of moisture. He shook his head in slow motion, water spraying out in all directions from his hair. Then he came toward her slowly, smiling, his arms outstretched toward her, his fingers gesturing for her to approach him…

His fingers waving…his arms outstretched…

She felt an ache growing beyond her ability to ignore it. She opened her eyes and looked up: she found that her fingers were covered with perspiration and were slipping, losing their gripe. She tried desperately to readjust, but now her fingers felt nerveless. She had no idea how long she had been hanging there, for she had lost track of time…but however long it was, it was enough for her to have lost all felling above the elbows.

With a low, muttered curse, she dropped from the branch and landed with a hard thud.

She sat there, dusting herself off, and looked up.

Josh was still hanging there. Serenely. Calmly. Looking as if he had all the time in the world. His eyes were still closed, his chest still rising and falling at the exact same pace as before…no. As a matter of fact, it was moving even slower.

She sat there and watched him, shaking her arms to try to restore circulation.

Josh hung there.

As blood began to return to Kim's upper arms, she felt a fierce pain, and winced as she touched the abraded skin on her palms. She looked back to her teacher.

Josh hung there.

And hung there.

She had no idea how long it was…ten, maybe fifteen minutes. Maybe longer. His body continued to display no ill effects whatsoever.

After what seemed an interminable length of time, Josh began to rock back and forth, slowly and gently. His eyes remained closed. He gained enough momentum to swing upward like a gymnast, wrapping his legs up and around the branch and bringing himself back to sitting.

"What are you doing down there?'

"What are you doing up there?" she countered. "Finally get tired?"

"No. I could have continued that way for quite some time. A shame that you couldn't. Maybe the weight of your muscles dragged you down," he smiled. "What an inconvenience, being so much stronger than me."

She stood, brushing herself off, and walked toward the base of the trunk. As she did do, Josh clambered upward, standing completely at ease.

"All right, you've proven your point" she said, trying to keep the disgust out of her voice. "You can climb down now."

Josh took a step toward the trunk so that he could get a grip and descend…and his foot slipped. His arms pinwheeling, and with a startled cry, Josh lost his balance and tumbled off.

Kim, still a short distance away, moved like lightening. Her arms outstretched, she skidded in and caught Josh before he hit. But she hadn't time to brace herself, and the weight of him carried her down. She dropped to her knees, the shock rattling her teeth, but she still held on to him.

Reflexively, his arms had gone around her neck. He tried to compose himself, automatically doing a breathing exercise to regain his equilibrium. Kim, meanwhile, shook her head briskly. Then she looked at him…and grinned ear to ear.

She got to her feet, still holding his arm. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. You can let go…"

Their faces had been mere inches from each other, and Kim now seized the initiative. She kissed him full on the lips.

They held like that for a long time, and she felt his body go limp. And then he just seemed to melt against her, and reflexively his hands squeezed her shoulder blades, as if afraid she might vanish, or the moment might end.

But, ultimately, it was he who ended it, breaking off with an audible popping sound. "Please let me go," he whispered, barely audible.

"But we were just getting…" she whined and grinned.

"Let me go. Now!"

She let go, and he fell to the ground.

She hadn't intended to do it. But the imperative was so startling and so overwhelming that it caught her completely unawares. He fell at her feet and, quickly scrambling up to his, backed away from her.

"I heard you," she said, "in my head. That must mean I'm getting better at this. Right?"

"You couldn't have heard me in your head."

"I know I…"

"You couldn't have!" he said with an infuriated stomp of his foot. "It's impossible."

She smiled and repeated her oft used saying, "Anything is possible for a Possible."

Josh turned away from her in an obvious attempt to compose himself. She made no movement toward him, stayed as far from him as she could.

He was in pain. Goodness, he was in pain over her.

At that moment, she cleared her mind because instinctively, she didn't want to think or even feel anything he might pick up on and cause him more distress. Just like that, she was suddenly thinking about nothing at all. And she felt totally relaxed.

"Josh…"

He said nothing. His hands were pressed against each other, palm to palm, and he had slowed his breathing down. When he did turn back to face her, all the confusion was gone. Instead he was lit with inner calm.

"Your problem, earlier," he said, sounding very cynical, "was that you were once again entertaining seductive thoughts about me, not that I haven't done the same about you," she smiled as he grinned for an instant, but it ran away. "All that you did was focus yourself on the needs of your body. You can't put yourself beyond those needs, if you use that as your focal point. You should watch out for that, Kim."

"Really." She took a step toward him. "Well, you know what I think, Mr. Mankey? I think your body and mind aren't quite as synchronized as you like to think. I think your body wanted to fall into my arms, contrary to what your mind might think of me. And so your ever-so-sure feet deliberately betrayed you."

"I subconsciously threw myself at you, is what you're saying?"

He laughed lightly.

"It's possible, yes."

Again he nervously laughed. "No, Kim. It's not possible. For your information, a piece of bark broke off, and that's what caused me to slip, that's all. If you look around on the ground, I'm sure you'll find where it fell. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

He turned and walked off. She called after him, "When is our next lesson?" But he didn't respond.

Kim spent the next twenty minutes searching every inch of the ground, trying to find the stray piece of bark.

She never found it.

------------------------------------

For the next two hours, Kim spent her time typing into her computer journal. I could feel her frustration with every keystroke and finally she burst into tears, came over and picked me up, lay on her bed and held me close to her chest. I still remember the beating of her heart between her sobs and her words as she told her tale.

She told me that she remembered almost all of the times, more than once, when she'd come back from missions so exhausted that she'd fallen asleep on Josh, in his lap, in his car on the way to restaurants or movies for their dates.. He started carrying a pillow in his car for her, wanting her head to be comfortable when she fell asleep from exhaustion. She thought that she remembered crying in her sleep, and she was sure that he stroked her hair to make her feel better.

She said that she was always embarrassed when she would wake up, but he always told her that it was, using her own words, 'No Big.' He would kiss her nose as he let her out in front of her house, then he would do it again as he said goodbye at the door.

Then she suddenly stopped talking, and Kim picked up her phone and punched Josh on speed-dial.

"Hello, Josh? It's Kim. Listen, can you meet me at MoonNickel's this afternoon, 'round 3:30?

Silence, then "OK, see you in a few, and she hung up the phone. "I guess it's over Pandaroo. Josh and I have really grown apart and it looks like it's time to move on and go our separate ways."

-----

Josh had her coffee already waiting for her at the table, just the way she liked it: two creams, and two sugar substitutes. He rose as she approached the table and pulled her chair out for her, then sat after she did. She noticed that he had changed into her favorite silk shirt, the one she wanted to wear, one night, with him, alone, under the stars…then she mentally shook her head.

"Josh," Kim started as they sat at the table at the back, "I guess we aren't going to be going together," and he nodded. "I thought I knew what I wanted, but I guess I was wrong, and you showed me that, this afternoon. I'm not sure what I want, but you and I aren't it," she smiled sadly.

"Kim," Josh said as he leaned forward, "I'm sorry about this afternoon. You're a very special and beautiful young woman," Kim smiled as she blushed, "and you deserve what you want for yourself."

"Kim," Josh said as he sat straight and stoically, "you know who you want, but you just won't admit it to yourself."

"Oh, really, Mr. Mankey?" She'd crossed her arms over her chest and made a face. "And who would that be, hmmm?" She picked up her coffee and took a drink.

"It's Ron, of course," and she shot her coffee across the table onto his new silk shirt.

"_**RON?**_" she shouted, and the manager had shushed her. She'd given him a look, and he went back to making coffee drinks.

"Yes, Ron," Josh wiped at the coffee with napkins from his tray.

"You've been with Ron more than you were with me while we were dating."

"We were on missions, Josh!"

"You've slept with Ron, and you certainly haven't slept with me, Kim," he smirked.

"It was in the back of a CargoMaster, Josh, and we were sitting upright with 20 Marines around us!" she countered.

"Kim, he went to the Amazon for you on our first date to keep you from disappearing: I could never compete with that," and Kim had a tear escape.

"It's all right, Kim: I understand if you don't want to date me anymore; just be true to yourself, that's all I ask," and he leaned across the table and kissed her cheek.

"I love you, Kimberly Ann Possible; I'll always love you, you know that. At least, now, I know just where I rank, that's all.

"If I was dumb, I'd wish I'd never met you, but that would be foolish; you have been one of the best things in my life. You've energized my paintings, and you've encouraged me to continue my music," and he stood and held out his hand, and she took his hand and rose to her feet.

"May I have one final kiss, Kim?" He asked, and she nodded and came around the table.

They kissed goodbye, and her lips remained closed, no matter how many times Josh's tongue knocked. They separated, and then Josh turned and left without saying another word.

She stood there, touching her lips for about a minute, then sat down in a chair and cried for about two or three minutes, then stood and ran out of the store for home and me.

"It's definitely over, Pandaroo: I broke up with Josh," she hugged me and cried even harder than she had after Walter.

'I could feel her pain and I remembered his. It was like the pain he felt on two separate occasions not so long ago. How did he endure it? I cannot say, but he stayed by her side no matter what happened in her love life.

'I vividly recalled the Friday afternoon she left Ron locked in the janitor's closet during the school dance and her first date with Josh Mankey. Ron didn't get out until an hour after the dance when the janitor finally let him out. For six hours it was just himself in a storage closet, alone. Poor guy didn't even have Rufus to talk to.

'Then there was the time that Rufus, Wade and he had tracked down the rare Amazonian Aurora orchid so that its pollen would restore her before she disappeared completely. Who did she walk off with that night – Josh Mankey. And the date night was 'perfect;' her words, not Ron's.

'Ron had waited for her to return to the park, but instead she had gone straight to her room and written down the evenings 'perfect' events in her computer diary. Meanwhile, he was left alone with Rufus. He was kneeling in the rain, with tears in his eyes, after helping his best friend from a dire dilemma, and she was nowhere to be found.

'Those times hurt and hurt him badly. I knew them all far too well, for he confided with me from time to time when he was waiting for Kim to come home from cheer practice or a community service project.

'I always enjoy listening to Ron. He has such a unique perspective on life. Ron was a delightfully unique person; I just wished that Kim would listen to him more. But, I digress…

'I knew it was true that, whenever some hottie came along that would improve or help Kim maintain her social status, she went after those guys without a second thought for Ron because she told me she did. After all, he was just a friend. and not very high on the food chain. But he was always there watching her back, never complaining much, just supporting her as she roughhoused with some goon or super villain. He didn't mind being the distraction. He only wanted to make sure Kim was safe and happy.

'Kim why can't you see that Ron is so right for you? I hope you wake up before it's too late. I love you, and I only want the best for you: always know that.'

-----

**Author's afterward:**

-----

A quick note from the story's protagonist:

I, Pandaroo, have authorized the following:

cpneb, to tell my story, what happened to me during Kim's graduation;

jakt, to write some of my more memorable stories about Kim and me, through the years.

A couple of quick notes: Kim will never admit it to anyone, but she loves the Frankie Valli song, and I like it, as well, so you'll see it referenced by my two storytellers, cpneb and jakt.

I have been on many of Kim's adventures around Middleton, and I thought that you might find some of these tales of interest; they were to me, at least, when they occurred. So, to quote an old Cuddle Buddy friend: "Let the adventure begin."

-----

Next, on **Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**

Nana examined the makeshift bandage and smiled.

"Bonnie, you did a wonderful job on this. Have you been medically trained?"

"No, I haven't," Bonnie admitted.

"Well, my dear, let's see what we have underneath these bandages…oh, my, dear, this is a bad one," Nana had removed the last of my bandage, and she could see my guts.

"It's one of the worst I've ever seen," and Bonnie burst into tears.

"Can you save him?" she called out, and I wanted to know the answer to that question, myself.

"Of course, dear Bonnie," and I breathed a sigh of relief, "they don't call me 'Needles' Possible for nothing in the E.R.," she grinned, and I wanted to shout for joy!

'Nana was 'Needles'? Every CuddleBuddy alive knew about Needles and her magical skills: she was a legend in her short time in the Team.

I had Needles on my case?

'This might not be so bad, after all,' I thought with a grin, but that grin was tempered by Kim's absence.

'Kim, where are you?' I called to her, but she didn't answer.

-----

Next, on **Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**

**Chapter 4: ****So close, so close, and yet so far…**

-----

All Rights Reserved. Kim Possible Characters © The Walt Disney Company, USA.

9/15/2007

Idea by K.T. and cpneb. Story by K.T, J.A. and cpneb.

Thanks to cpneb for the beta. Their suggestions and thoughts are timely and appreciated, as always.


	5. 4: So close, so close, and yet so far…

_**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

Disclaimer/Author's Notes: Kim Possible and all the characters of the show are owned by the Disney Company. The original lyrics to the songs referenced in this story and the music are the property of the respective authors, artists and labels. All other characters can be blamed on the author (he, however, is not responsible for all of their actions at all times, being barely responsible for himself most of the time).

This is a strictly not-for-profit, just-for-fun work.

Enjoy! Please read and review.

**A/N Forward: **

This began as a thought in both the heads of cpneb and kt (of jakt). A few phone calls, some emails, and the idea came brought forth into production.

This joint project between cpneb and jakt is the direct result of the request from a certain eleven year old; resistance was futile, indeed, as one simple question became the opening of the _**Birth, and Rebirth**_ arc.

cpneb will present the main story line, while jakt will presents other major components of the story as it is told.

"Let the adventure begin."

-----

Previously, on _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

-----

"Here we are," I don't know how long we'd been walking, but Bonnie opened a door, and we went up some stairs and down a hall to her room.

"Pandaroo, I hate to do this, but I need to hide you from the SFH and the 'rents, OK?" She talked as she took two shoe boxes, ripped the ends out, and made me a bed, removing her blouse and placing it inside to pad the box.

'After spending the night on cold concrete, Bonnie, the shoe boxes, by themselves, will be heaven,' I wanted to tell her.

"There," She placed me in the boxes, then kissed my forehead. "I hope you're comfortable, and I hope you're ok being in the dark in the closet," she picked up the nested boxes and placed me in the back of her closet, surrounding me with cheer pom-poms piled to hide me.

"As soon as I find Wade or Kim, we'll get you to the **Cuddl**-_**E.R.**_ facility, ok?" She closed the closet door, and I smiled inside.

'There's a star up there for you, Bonnie Rockwaller. Thank you, Bonnie, for everything,' and I relaxed for the first time in a long time, but then I felt Kim's scream.

_**NOOOOOO!**_

Kim's hanging upside-down, and she's barely conscious.

What have they done to her?

Why is Ron floating?

This doesn't look good, not good at all….

-----

And, now, _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You:**_

Chapter 4 - **So close, so close, and yet so far…**

-----

One thing I forgot to mention:

Bonnie was HOT!

Sue me, I'm male, but I'm really glad Ron wasn't anywhere near here when she removed that blouse. He'd have had the same reaction that he had the first time he saw Kim in that swimsuit in her room, years ago. Yeah, that was a classic reaction: I expected his jaw to break through the floor when she turned around and he saw her in that outfit: a light-green and white one-piece that had support in all the right places and tight in all the rest.

Ron had told me about BonBon, but I'd never seen her since first grade, so this was a surprise, to say the least.

All of that beauty obviously came with a good heart, obviously, since I was in her closet. I hope Kim doesn't find out; I don't want to hear her jokes about me 'coming out;' yes, she would, to me anyway.

Kim likes everybody, no matter who they are or how they are. Kim has lots of friends: people from school, from church, from missions. She has a good heart, and a kind disposition, and she naturally drew people to her; those same people respected her opinion and her counsel. I learned that when one of her friends came over.

Alexis Safic has been over more than once, recently, to talk to Kim about school projects, and she finally told Kim why she had been coming over all of these times when Kim finally asked.

"Alexis, you understand all of this, so tell me what's really wrong: I've been through enough that I can take it…seriously," Kim laughed, and Alexis smiled and took a deep breath.

Kim was the first person that she told that she thought she might be a lesbian, and she was deathly afraid of how people would treat her. "I haven't even told my parents, Kim, because I'm scared: I don't know what they're going to say or do. What are people at school, here in town, gonna say about me?" She burst into tears and hugged herself.

Kim immediately stood and walked over to her, took her hand, stood her from the chair as her face leaked, and kissed her tenderly on the lips. Alexis melted into her arms, and Kim allowed her to linger as long as she needed.

"You're not contagious, Alexis," Kim said when their lips separated. "I know that, and I still like you as a friend. I just hope you won't dump me as a friend for my being 'het,'" Kim smiled, and Alexis laughed.

"Tell anyone who 'disses' you, Alexis, that they have to deal with me, and that should shut them up, at least for a bit," Kim told her, and Alexis hugged her and soaked Kim's shoulder with her tears. "And," Kim started, and Alexis pulled back to look into her eyes, "I'll go with you when you tell your parents, if you need some support," and Alexis' smile went platinum.

"You'd…do that… for **me**?" Alexis asked, and Kim nodded and pulled her into a long hug.

"I'd do it to help a dear friend, Alex," Kim used the name that Alexis had told her she was going to start using, and that simple change told Alexis that she was 'not alone.'

"Kim, thank you," she said as she pulled back from the hug, then grinned. "Are you sure…?"

"I'm sure, Alexis," Kim replied, and then grinned big herself. "After all those times in the showers with the cheer squad: trust me, I'd know," and Alexis moaned.

"You just told me that to torture me, Kim, didn't you?" Alexis had an evil grin on her face, while Kim looked as innocent as a lamb.

"Guilty, as charged, Alexis, guilty," she replied, then pulled a second chair up to her desk and patted it. Alexis sat in the chair, Kim sat in hers, and they went back to work on their project, Alexis occasionally slipping her hand over to Kim's leg, and Kim slapping it playfully and laughing as they continued studying.

About 30 minutes into their studying, Kim pushed her for some more dirt on her 'partner hunting': "So, Alex, do you have you eye on anyone in particular?" she grinned as Alexis blushed.

"Well…."

"Spill," Kim commanded.

"There is one person that I've been considering," she smiled. "Jennifer Horne'."

"Jen?" Kim sounded surprised.

"Yes, Jen: I think she's gorgeous: don't you?"

"She's pretty, but I never pictured you two…then again, I never pictured you with another girl," Kim said honestly, then grinned. "Have you talked to her yet?"

"Heavens, no, Kim: I haven't told anyone but you about any of this," Alex admitted, and Kim grinned.

"You want me to hook you up?" and Alexis' jaw dropped.

"You'd…do that…for **me**?" Alexis' eyes were huge, and tears were coming down again.

"You like that phrase, don't you?" Kim laughed, then pulled a shocked Alexis back into a tight hug and whispered her answer to her: "of course: what are friends for, Alex, but to help each other?"

Kim left the house with Alexis, and she came back, hours later, with a huge smile on her face.

"Pandaroo, it was perfect!" she grabbed me and hugged me as she fell onto the bed. "Her parents had suspected that something was bothering her, and they had been worried that something was wrong, physically, with her, and were actually relieved when she told them.

"Her mother jumped up and grabbed her and hugged her: 'Alexis, why would you ever think that we would stop loving you because of who you loved?'

"Her father sat there for a moment, then smiled. 'Alexis, how are you feeling about this? Are you scared, frightened; well, DUH,' he laughed when he realized what he's said. 'You brought Kim Possible over here: were you scared we were going to go 'Diablo' on you?' and his smile was platinum, Pandaroo, simply platinum.

"They all hugged for the longest time, and Alex came over when they had finished their crying and hugged me once again.

"'Thank you, Kim,' she whispered. 'You ROCK!' Alexis kissed her cheek.

"'Now, Shoo!' she pulled me up from my chair and pushed me towards the door, laughing. 'Thanks, but I've taken too much of your time over the last few weeks, and-'

"I shushed her. 'It's no problem, Alex, and never too much time, when it's for a friend,' and I headed out the door to laughter and more tears as they hugged some more.

"I'm so happy for Alex: she found out what family really means: stick by you, no matter what," and she squeezed me tight. "Just like you stick by me, no matter what, Pandaroo," she kissed the top of my head. "I love you, Pandaroo," she whispered as she fell back on her pillow and, almost immediately, fell asleep.

'Being friends can take a lot out of you, sometimes, doesn't it, Kim?' I laughed, and I smiled inside.

'I love you, too, Kim,' and I decided to catch some Zs, myself.

-----

"Are you awake, Pandaroo?" I heard the pom-poms pulled out of the closet, and then I felt the bed move as it was lifted from the hiding place. I came into the light, and I saw Bonnie's beautifully smiling face.

I must have passed out, again: that's not a good sign, I thought, but I was so enthralled by Bonnie's smile: it was so beautiful, so caring: I felt I could get lost in those teal eyes for years.

"How are you, handsome?" she leaned over and kissed my forehead.

'Much, much, better, Bonnie, but I'm sorry: I'm a one-woman 'roo, no matter how tempting you are to me.'

"I've got a carrying case for you so we can get out of the house," she gently lifted me from the bed and placed me on her pillow, then checked my bandage to make sure I wasn't leaking down.

I love her fingers….

She smiled as she lifted me again and placed me in the bag, and I felt the blouse on the bottom.

"I can't believe you ripped this, Bonnie," Tara was there, too?

Be still, my heart: I love cheerleaders….

"I can't believe you're still talking about it, Tara," Bonnie replied as she made sure I was set in the bag and zipped it shut, tossing me into an almost-darkness: light came in through the zipper, and Bonnie didn't close it completely.

"The coast is clear, Bonnie: they're all in their rooms, and the doors are all shut," Tara whispered, and I felt Bonnie lift my carrier. We were on the move, once again.

I felt Bonnie bounce the case as we went down the stairs, and I heard a door open, then close. We were outside: I could feel the difference in the air. We went a short distance, and I heard another door open, and Bonnie put me on what felt like a car seat, then something moved and clicked, and Bonnie tightened what I assumed was the seat belt on my case. I was strapped in, good: good.

"I still can't believe you have a Jedi 5000, Tara," Bonnie said from in front of me as she got into the car, closing the door.

"Why, Bonnie?" Tara got in and closed the door. "Belts, Bonnie," and I heard seat belts click. Tara was grinning when she spoke; I could tell from the tone of her voice.

"Don't know, Tara, I guess I'm just jellin.' After all, my car just dissolved, or disappeared, underneath me, and I'm sure Kim's brothers had something to do with it; I just never could prove it," and Tara started the car. We began to move, and Tara certainly knew how to drive: the entire trip was smooth, even as she dodged things in the road, I assumed, as she swerved several times as we headed…they forgot to tell me.

We were on the move for about 10 or 15 minutes, then we finally pulled up and stopped. Both car doors opened and seat belts clicked as they came off. I felt someone reach behind the seat, I heard a click as the restraint was removed, and I then felt my carrier lifted, and we were on the move, once again, on foot, but only for a little bit as I felt my transport stop and I heard a doorbell ring. I knew where I was immediately: the doorbell went _**BEEP-BEEP-BE-DEEP**_! Tara and Bonnie both laughed hard when they heard Wade's doorbell 'modifications;' Kim had told me what he had done, but I guess Bonnie and Tara had never heard it before.

The door opened, and a woman's voice said, "he's in his room; I'll show you where," and we walked more, this time on carpet, and we stopped.

I heard a door open, and I heard a male voice speak.

"Hello, Bonnie," that voice was smiling, as well.

"Hello, Wade," Bonnie replied. "Thank you for taking care of this for us," she added as she placed my carrier on a hard surface.

Wade?

Dr. Load?

I'm in Wade's room?

It's been years since I was here; the last time was when Kim came to see Wade about her site upgrade and him joining the team….

-----

"Hello, Mr. Load, I'm Kim Possible, and this is Pandaroo," Kim shook Wade's hand.

He was a short, pudgy, African-American kid, and she was calling him Mister?

"Come in, Miss Possible," and Kim stepped into his room, followed by a woman who must have been Wade's mom. She was pretty, I thought.

"I've taken a look at your website, and it's not bad, for a starter site," Wade said as he sat in his chair and rolled up to his desk.

"I've down-loaded your site to a server of my own so I could show you what could be changed," and he clicked some keys, and now there were two pictures of the same thing on separate screens.

"Here's what the new site would look like," and Kim gasped when the picture changed.

"That's beautiful, Wade!" Kim almost shouted, and Wade turned and grinned at her. "I love it!"

"Thank you, Miss Possible."

"Kim."

"Kim?"

"If you're going to work with me, it's Kim," she extended her hand, and Wade looked confused.

"Work with you?" he sounded confused.

"Yes; I guess Dr. Director didn't tell you the rest," Kim smiled.

"I'm going to move from full-time babysitting and part-time 'other' work to part-time babysitting and full-time helping people, Mister Load, and I need your help with some things," Kim sounded confident, and Wade still looked confused. "I've already helped some people, from getting cats from trees to shutting down a laser grid for Mr. Paisley.

"I need some kind of thingy to throw a rope so I can use it to climb when it hooks onto a wall or something," she began, and Wade smiled.

"A 'rope gun?'" Wade asked, but Kim shook her head.

"Not a gun; something more like this," and she handed me to the woman and pulled out a folded piece of paper, handing it to Wade.

The woman had soft hands, and she was pretty, a lot like Kim's mom.

"A 'hair dryer?'" Wade smirked, and Kim nodded.

"Yeah," she grinned. "It'd be neat," she added.

"All right, Kim," he grinned, and he turned to his keyboard and attacked it. Pictures flashed up, over and over, and words scrolled across it, then more pictures of hand-held hair dryers flashed across the monitor, then he stopped.

"The parts will be here tomorrow, and I'll have a prototype ready for you to test on Friday; will that be all right?" he asked as he turned around to face her.

"Mister Load, that's wonderful!" she was beaming.

"Wade."

"Wade, how would you like to work with 'Team Possible?'" and Wade beamed, and so did the woman.

"Gee let me think...Sure, Kim, I'd love to, but maybe you should wait until the unit's complete and tested." And there was a knock on the door.

"Wade? Are you in there?" and a young woman came in, and she didn't look at all like Wade or his mom.

"Hi, Sarah. This is Kim Possible; she's asked me to help her on her website and some other things," Wade introduced them, and Sarah stuck out her hand. "Kim, this is my next-door neighbor, Sarah Best," and Kim shook Sarah's hand.

"You go to my school," Kim finally realized, and Sarah nodded.

"Yeah, I do. Are you trying out for cheer?" Sarah asked, and Kim smiled.

"I'm on the team from last year, so Bonnie and I are on the team helping to pick; are you trying out," and Sarah nodded.

"Good luck, then," and Kim took me from Wade's mom and stood up. "I guess I should be going, then: Wade, I'm looking forward to us working together," and she stuck out her hand and shook Wade's hand. Wade was beaming form ear to ear….

-----

The case unzipped, and a pair of hands reached in to lift me out, and I saw a very different Wade. Something was going on, though: he looked happy and sad and agitated and serene, all at the same time.

"Hello, Pandaroo: it's been awhile since you were here last. It's my turn to help Kim, once again," and he held me up in front of him and kissed my forehead.

"You're gonna be all right, guy," he whispered, "we're gonna get you the best help there is," and I felt calmer. He handed me to Tara, and she took me and cradled me. I looked, and she was trying not to cry.

"Thank you, Bonnie, for finding him: I scanned the house site, and I couldn't find him," and there was a tear in Wade's eye. "With Kim gone, and her house destroyed, I wanted to find him, so she would have something to come back to that was familiar," and he held out his arms. Bonnie stepped into them, and Wade hugged Bonnie.

"Thanks, Bonnie," he whispered.

"'Aww, no big,' Wade," she replied, and Wade laughed.

"What's the plan, Wade?" Bonnie asked when he let her go.

"We're in luck, Bonnie: we have a member of the **Cuddl**-_**E.R.**_ staff in town: I found out when I finally got through off the satellites to Orlando," Wade grinned.

"Who, Wade?" Bonnie asked, excitedly, and I heard a knock at the door.

"Come in, Sarah," Wade called, and Sarah came in with an older woman who looked a bit like Kim.

"Mrs. Possible?" Tara asked, and the lady nodded.

"You can call me 'Nana,' Miss Tara," Kim's grandmother, and I got excited.

"You're a member of the **Cuddl**-_**E.R.**_ staff?" Tara asked as Bonnie beamed.

"Retirement's a drag, dear, so I volunteered to work there, but I was better than either they or I dreamed," she smiled as she stepped over to me, smiling, "so they gave me a handle."

"You're 'Needles?'" Bonnie asked, awed, and Nana grinned and nodded as she checked my bandage.

''Needles' was here?'

"Did you do this?" Nana looked at Bonnie, and her face went blank.

"Yes, ma'am."

"You're a 'Cuddler,' aren't you, dear?" and Bonnie's eyes welled up.

"I wanted to be, but my parents would never buy me one, so I spend time researching and on the Cuddler forums," and Nana beamed.

"Well, I'll bet my luggage that I've' finally met 'Want2BACuddler,'" Nana reached over and hugged the shocked Bonnie. "It's a pleasure, Bonnie; I wondered who was behind that penname, especially when you said you were from Middleton, and your reaction just confirmed it for me, dear.

"You did a wonderful job, protecting him, and I knew only a true 'Cuddler' could have done this," she squeezed Bonnie even more as Bonnie began to cry.

'Hello? What about me, Needles?'

'Thank you, dear," Nana released Bonnie and turned back to me.

"Pandaroo: you're so very lucky to have been found by a 'Cuddler,'" she stared as she opened my bandage and grimaced. "Any longer, and you might have lost your heart. Luckily, we can take care of- oh, my, goodness," Nana's face turned sour, and now, I was worried.

"What's wrong?" Wade asked, looking concerned.

"We have heart damage, Wade: we're going to need that ride, after all," she replied.

"Be here in two minutes," he announced as the sound of an incoming jet could be heard, faintly.

"Let's get you bundled back up, Pandaroo, and we'll take you to the Center for a full workup: when we're done, you'll hardly be able to know where you were hit," she smiled as she re-applied the bandage, tying it just right so it didn't hurt. She then picked me up, kissed both my left and right cheeks, and whispered, "and we'll get Kimberly Ann, too, so you won't be scared."

"Any word on Kim and Ron, Wade?" Tara asked.

"They're on their way in: they should be here in five minutes.

"Let's go, everybody," and Wade stood and grabbed what looked like Kim's Kimmunicator, and I saw Sarah with what looked like a case for one strapped to her waist. She wore what looked like Kim's mission outfit, but it was different, somehow.

"Go?" Tara and Bonnie asked.

"Jinx! You owe me a soda, you two," Nana stated, then giggled. She sounded just like I imagined Kim would sound in when she reached that age; I just hope I'm still with her, then. "You deserve a trip for what you've done, young ladies, so you're all coming with us to Orlando for the operation, my treat: call it my way of saying 'Thank You' to both of you for being such good friends of my Kimberly Ann," Nana smiled, and she stopped Bonnie when she began to speak. "And, yes, Bonnie, I know all about your spats over the years, and those don't matter since you've changed: a little bird told me about your changes, and it wasn't Kimberly Ann, either," and Nana placed me in the case gently and zipped it almost shut, letting in a little light.

"Mom? We'll be back in a couple of days at the latest," Wade was talking to his mother, and I heard her kiss his cheek.

"Good job, son," she said, and I was lifted as we all headed out of Wade's room and out of the house to a loud sound coming out of the air.

I felt a large thump, and the sound wound down to nothing in mere moments; then, a loud CLANG and more new voices.

"Somebody call a cab?" a decidedly feminine voice called from in front of them.

"Funny, Lindsey," came from Wade. "Who's your co-pilot on this one: your 'boyfriend?'" Wade was laughing as he asked.

"No, Wade, Will's not here," another lady's voice, and I heard Bonnie gasp in delight.

"Hi, Bonnie," steps as the person came quickly down the steps.

"Rebecca Jane!" Bonnie screamed and, from the sound of it, she and the lady smashed into each other as Bonnie's emotional dam burst completely: I heard her tears all flow out, tears of joy.

I was carried up the steps into what I assumed was a plane of some sort, and I was carried over to a table, and my case was unzipped so I could see out a bit.

"That better, dear?" Nana Needles, who else?

"Everybody get strapped in," the voice from the young lady named Lindsey ordered. "As soon as everyone's on board, we're cleared to head out, hot."

There were several clicks, and I heard squealing tires coming from outside, two doors slam, and feet, running on the ground and up the stairs.

"Where **is** he?" The voice I wasn't certain I'd ever hear again.

'KIM!' I yelled, and I heard her footsteps come closer as Nana unzipped the carrier completely and looked inside.

I love those green eyes, but now they were filled with tears.

"He's hurt, Kimberly Ann, but I'll take care of him: I and the team, we **all** will," Nana smiled as she touched Kim's cheek.

"You?" Kim asked.

"Kim, your Nana is 'Needles,'" Bonnie announced, and Kim's head snapped around to find the source of the statement.

"Bonnie?"

"Bonnie found him on the street, in front of your house, the morning after the landing," Wade announced, and Nana lifted me up from the case so I could see Kim hugging a totally shocked and crying Bonnie.

"Thank you, Bonnie," Kim managed to get out between her own sobs.

"Kim: you and Ron need to strap in," came from the flight deck. "We're ready to take off, and you need to be strapped in," Lindsey announced, and Kim pulled back, surprised.

"Let's get strapped in, Kim," Ron touched her arm, "We can find out on the way to Orlando," he led her to the seat at the table next to Needles and me, and Nana passed me to her after she and Ron were strapped in. Wade strapped in next to Kim in front of where he had been standing, next to the table and against the wall of the plane, and swung his chair around to face the table.

"Let's go, Lindsey," Wade called out, and the door slammed shut as the engines wound, then we lifted as Kim looked into my eyes.

"I guess we're both had a busy time, huh, Pandaroo?" she smiled through her tears, and she hugged me and got my bandage wet. Kim looked at the bandage, then at Bonnie.

"Bonnie?" Kim called.

"Yes, Kim?"

"Isn't this your blouse sleeve, the one you loved, the silk?"

"Yeah; so?"

"Thank you, Bonnie."

"You're welcome, Kim"

I love closure, and I love Kim.

She felt so good holding me, I almost didn't notice the hole in my gut.

Almost.

"Wade?" Kim turned to him.

"Yes, Kim?"

"How'd you get the GJ jet?"

"I 'borrowed' it; call it 'secret borrowing,' Kim," Wade chuckled, and Ron laughed from the other side of Kim.

"WADE!" Kim yelled and reached over to squeeze his hand and mouthed 'Thank You.'

It pays to have friend who will borrow a jet for you.

"Wade?"

"Yea, Kim?"

"Why didn't Joss come down for graduation?"

Wade burst into tears.

-----

Everyone in the back of the plane looked at the rare sight: Dr. Load, not in control of a sitch, and they all wanted to hug him. Ultimately, Kim did, and she patted his back until he could calm down enough to look up at her and smile through his tears.

"Kim, I've lost Jocelyn, forever. She won't return my calls, she won't talk to me, she won't even talk to her Dad about it," I couldn't believe the look on Wade's face.

Tara and Bonnie both stared at Wade: they didn't know who the Joss was, but they knew what love was, and they were shocked to hear that Wade was so deeply in it at such an early age: he couldn't be any more than 15, if that.

'He is shaping up and on his way to becoming a 'hottie,' though,' crossed both their minds, and they both looked at each other and blushed and giggled.

"How?" Kim asked.

"I found this when we woke up," Kim looked perplexed as Wade pulled out a oft-folded piece of paper note with 15 letters on it and showed it to Kim:

**NEVER,**

**AGAIN,**

**AGGIE!**

Then, Kim caught Wade's words, and her face furrowed. "We?"

"Sarah and I," Wade whispered, and Kim's mouth dropped open as she whipped her head around to glare at Sarah, and Sarah blushed beet-red and mouthed 'it's not like that, Kim.'

"_**IT WASN'T LIKE THAT, KIM**_!" Wade yelled. "It was the night after we came back: We came home late, remember, after 3:00 AM, and Sarah crashed over here in the guest room, and she came down to talk to me about Chip, and I started talking to her about Jocelyn, and we fell asleep on my bed, and we woke up hugging each other, and I found the ring on my pillow, and I don't know what I'm going to do, Kim, she's my world, I can't live without her," Wade finally stopped talking, took a deep breath, then began to cry again, even harder.

"He's telling the truth, Kim," Sarah spoke finally, a much softer voice than her normal one. Kim looked up from Wade to Sarah. "Wade was helping me: listening to my rants about Drakken and Zorpox," Ron smiled and grimaced at the same time, "and let me talk about how I feel about Chip, and we fell asleep.

"Kim, Wade's like my little brother: I would never do anything to hurt him or Jocelyn, especially not their relationship: I love her like a feisty little sister," she added, and Kim grinned.

"What am I gonna _**do**_, Kim?" Wade, looking like a whipped puppy, had finally calmed down enough to ask his question, and the plane was silent except for the air flowing from the vents above the seats and the wind whistling outside as the jet flew towards Orlando.

-----

**Author's afterward:**

-----

A quick note from the story's protagonist:

I, Pandaroo, have authorized the following:

cpneb, to tell my story, what happened to me during Kim's graduation;

jakt, to write some of my more memorable stories about Kim and me, through the years.

A couple of quick notes: Kim will never admit it to anyone, but she loves the Frankie Valli song, and I like it, as well, so you'll see it referenced by my two storytellers, cpneb and jakt.

I have been on many of Kim's adventures around Middleton, and I thought that you might find some of these tales of interest; they were to me, at least, when they occurred. So, to quote an old Cuddle Buddy friend: "Let the adventure begin."

-----

Next, on _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

**Chapter 5: ****You couldn't see….**

-----

Thank you, to all of you, for supporting us on this new journey.

Thanks again for reading, and please review.

-----

All Rights Reserved. Kim Possible Characters © The Walt Disney Company, USA.

9/21/2007

Idea by K.T. and cpneb. Story by K.T, J.A. and cpneb.

Thanks to jakt and Star-eva01for the beta work. Their suggestions and thoughts are timely and appreciated, as always.


	6. 5: You couldn’t see…

_**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

Disclaimer/Author's Notes: Kim Possible Characters © the Walt Disney Company, USA. The original lyrics to the songs referenced in this story and the music are the property of the respective authors, artists and labels. All other characters can be blamed on the author (he, however, is not responsible for all of their actions at all times, being barely responsible for himself most of the time).

This is a strictly not-for-profit, just-for-fun work.

Enjoy! Please read and review.

**A/N Forward: **

This began as a thought in both the heads of cpneb and kt (of jakt). A few phone calls, some emails, and the idea came brought forth into production.

(Pandaroo, laughing) And, I helped!

This joint project between cpneb and jakt is the direct result of the request from a certain eleven year old; resistance was futile, indeed, as one simple question became the opening of the _**Birth, and Rebirth**_ arc. She's twelve, now, and resistance is laughed at….

cpneb will present the main story line, while jakt will presents other major components of the story as it is told.

"Let the adventure continue…."

--

And, now, _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You:**_

Chapter 5** - ****You couldn't see…**

--

Kim's bedroom had an unusual eerie quietness about it as Ron waited for her to return from her date with Eric. He had noticed, over the past few days, that Kim was taking longer to respond to the missions that they were being called in on, and to him it was Kim's preoccupation with Eric that was to blame.

The past days were among some of the very few times that Ron had actually been ready to go before her, and that was really bothering him. He sat, nervously drumming his fingers on her desk as he waited. Finally, after 10 minutes, he decided to just toss himself onto the top of Kim's bed. It was something he knew he shouldn't do, but he needed to be with her right now, and this was the next best thing.

The magnificence of the multi-hued setting sun filling her room was amazing, and the darkness had started to settle covering everything like a cloak. A stray unfamiliar breeze chose to waft through the bedroom's open window, gently blowing her curtains and seemingly calling out to him.

The still quietness, in an odd way, almost seemed to whisper to him every second he laid there. The smell of Kim coming from her bedcovers was overwhelming to his senses and he reveled in it. His defenses were down: he was exposed like an open book waiting to be read.

He turned on his side in the darkness, his own heavy breathing filling up the silence and drying out his throat. The blackness of the night all around him was complete, stifling, and he was afraid. It wasn't a normal fear, like his fear of monkeys or bugs or the pain of Shego blasting away at him…or even dying. It came from a source he couldn't identify.

And, it kept coming…

When he couldn't push it back any longer, he began to struggle, but he couldn't move. He felt paralyzed by his own emotions. His lips parted, but no sound emerged. His throat was really dry now, his voice frozen. This wasn't fear: it was panic! He was all too familiar with the sensation, especially with Kim dating Eric, and the sensation it was literally killing him.

His mouth felt parched, like a thirsty man searching for water, hours on end, in the relentless heat of a summer desert, and he wondered how long it had been since he'd had anything to drink. Then, the panic tugged at him again, taunting him, restraining him. He felt the breaths in his chest begin to increase and he squeezed his eyes shut, fighting for all he was worth.

"Breathe, slowly," he whispered to himself in the harsh nothingness. "Just breathe. Don't think." All of a sudden why did he feel like he was drowning?

'Sunlight. Bright and streaming. Sunlight and heat,' he thought to himself to suppress the feeling but all that came was the same ol', same ol' thoughts of "water rising, water rising."

'stop, Stop, STOP!' Each word came out louder in his mind than the one before it, a desperate plea to himself. There was only one way to make it stop, to make it go away. 'KP...help...'

He wished for a sound, a voice, something…but only the profound silence washed over him like an ocean wave and then buried him beneath its embrace.

"Yahweh, help me."

--

'He looks so lost,' Pandaroo thought, reminding himself that this sitch was culminating into a seriously low point in Ron's life. Pandaroo had seen it coming for quite some time, and there was nothing he could do to help. But then, observations, sometimes, weren't a bad thing if you are a fiber-filled animal. For a Cuddle Buddy, if you worked hard at it, you could actually store those feelings and points of view and then channel them to someone else: something Pandaroo had mastered with Kim long ago. He absorbed all of Ron's feelings, mixing them with Kim's. For now, he would keep those feelings to himself.

Added to this point was that Roo also knew that Ron was fretting over asking Kim to the prom. Not because she would say no, but because it revealed certain "Ron type" emotions targeted towards her. Naturally, he was afraid to publicly express how he felt. Whether it was happiness, anger, sadness or even love, Ron felt that expressing his emotions to Kim would be viewed as even more weaknesses added to the ones he'd already shared with her. Even if it was a simple task of just asking, he feared putting it into words to her was more than he could bear. It was indeed something that made him feel inadequate and uncomfortable, and Pandaroo felt the angst of turmoil building inside Ron's heart.

Ron felt something change, but he could not understand what: Roo channeled a small part of Kim's feelings _**for**_ Ron that he had stored _**into**_ Ron. Feelings that were for him, "Ron Stoppable". Feelings that had grown over time as Roo accumulated them from Kim. Then, Roo smiled inside as something remarkable happened.

For a moment, in his mind, Ron now saw Kim lying in his arms, her head pillowed on his chest. He could feel the gentle motion of her breathing, lulling him into security, but he knew she wasn't really there so he picked up Pandaroo and placed him on his chest. Ron's breathing was slowed now, and was almost methodical as Pandaroo listened to his heart and his breathing both return to normal.

"Roo, you should have seen the look in her eyes as she and Eric touched hands and their eyes met. There was a sudden silence, and you could feel the heat generated between them; and I knew that their hearts leapt in a giddy whirl for each other. It was the saddest day of my life."

I could feel my heart break for him, as I thought 'am I the only one that sees that you and Kim belong together?' But there was another one that echoed those thoughts.

--

Dr. Anne Possible stood outside of Kim's bedroom door. She didn't mean to eaves drop on him. She just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time and, as she continued to listen, tears began to well up and then graciously flowed from her dreamy blue eyes.

Her heart nearly broke for this young man as she saw the depth of emotions pouring out of him; she knew that he truly and unconditionally loved her daughter. She realized now that Ron knew Kim's heart better than she knew it herself. Why couldn't Kim see that? Why was the food chain playing such a dominant role in her life, right now?? It made no sense to her why Kim was so blind to what was going on.

--

Ron was tired, his sated body drained of every last ounce of energy. Still, he waited and continued to soak up the sounds and sensations her room offered. He continued to talk to Pandaroo…

"KP, you are my first and best friend. I need to be with you, and I need you to remind me I'm a human being. I'm not a zero, but, sometimes, I forget. My mind dips away into my world of fears and holds me hostage, refusing to let me know that the only thing I really care about is being with you.

"When we're together, the sound of your breathing lets me know you're real and not some figment of my desperate imagination. Your arms hold me secure, even in my dreamland, and I can feel you sleeping sometimes.

"Do you dream about me, Kim, like I dream about you?" Ron smiled a weak smile.

"Without you, holding me in my dreams, the nights are cold and lonely. I love you, KP. I just wish I could tell you."

Outside, an orchestra of crickets began to serenade him. The intensity of their performance heralded the beginning of summer. However, their sound suddenly vanished as fast as he knew summer would end. He wished he could say something to her now. The message that he wanted to convey was there in his heart, but he just couldn't seem to translate or release it.

In the distance, he could hear a train, chugging its way to parts unknown. The whistle echoed eerily in the new silence, like a phantom on the wind.

"I remember, a few summers ago, you told me you used to like walking the tracks when you were a kid, said it gave you a sense of freedom and endless possibilities from the drama of Middle School. You were reminiscing, with sadness, as I listened to your tale. I wanted to cry for all the pain that Bonnie was causing you to go through in cheer practice and the loneliness you felt. I couldn't let you see what was on my mind, but I think you knew anyway.

"Sometimes, I wish we couldn't read each other's minds so well. But that would be pretending to be blind, wouldn't it? Making believe things were the way we wanted them, instead of how they are.

"Does that mean things aren't the way we want...if so, tell me how you want them. I would not love you any less. It seems hard to believe that anyone would wish away the greatest thing to ever happen to them. Would you like me to love you less, KP?

"I don't want to love you any less. With you, I can get, in a day, the same thing it would take me ten years to get with anyone else. The joy I find in you, however long it lasts, will always be equal to several lifetimes of loving anyone else. I'm lucky and I know it. You are my best friend."

"I love you." He whispered into the stillness of the night, still feeling as he often did, that his declaration, no matter how heartfelt, was not nearly sufficient to express himself.

"You didn't believe me the first time I told you in my dreams." He told himself, raising his hand to her imagined face to gently touch the area where he recalled he had cupped her cheek, with so much more than friendship on his mind, for the first time so long ago.

Ron took a deep breath and then let it out slowly, thinking how he always wanted to be able to love Kim with all his heart. It was not surprising, he guessed, that of all the things he still had some difficulty working on…this had always been the hardest…his feelings of love transcending the moment of his fevered imagination to reach out and really touch her and tell her his heart when he lacked the courage to so.

He opened his eyes on that thought, his mind still working him, pushing him towards his inevitable conclusion. He so much wanted to find Kim standing behind him watching his back right now. Watching out for him.

"I love you so much." He whispered again into the darkness. "I will always love you, KP."

Ron heard the front door open and heard two voices downstairs. It was her and Eric returning from their date. Getting up he straightened her bed and placed Pandaroo back where he belonged and turned on the lights. "Roo, I figure it's time to give up trying to say all the things inside of me. It's not coming out the way I wanted, anyway. If I was a poet, I would write KP the most beautiful poetry in the world, everyday. If I was a literary genius, I could make the words on paper jump out and grab her. But I'm only a sidekick who watches her back, who's not very good at the written word. All I can give her is my heart. I want so much to say, no matter what my head is doing, my heart is always loving you."

--

Anne started downstairs to greet her daughter. Almost reaching the bottom, she stopped and looked at the photo collage on the stairway wall. And, her eyes watered once again. Perhaps Ron wasn't the best-looking guy around, but he always watched out for her daughter, protected her, supported her and, in the end, brought her home safe, like he had promised James, years ago.. For a mother, she could not ask for a greater gift than what Ron had continually given her and Kimberly Ann through the years.

Again her mind returned to her earlier thoughts. 'Kimmy: why are you so blind to Ron's love for you? Why can't you feel his love for you? Why are you letting the food chain and others opinions control you? Kimmy, wake up, before it's too late!'

--

Eric was different.

At least, that's how Kim felt about him the next morning.

Since the first time she'd seen him in the cafeteria, she'd been crushing on him. There was no other way to describe it. And that crush was growing, exponentially.

She didn't know him well enough to love him yet…not nearly. But, the attraction she felt was undeniable. She couldn't even pass him in the school hallway without feeling her skin go all goose-pimply…

Kim shook herself as she ran her fingers through her auburn hair and sighed.

Why did she feel this way? Did the food chain, according to Bonnie, really make that much of a difference? Why was he interested in her? After all, there were other female teenagers in Middleton High. Lots of them.

Still, she wanted to impress him. To make him respect her, admire her. Heck, to make sure he kept noticing her.

As they passed in the hallway, Kim cleared her throat gently to draw Eric's attention after she made the necessary adjustments to her shirt collar and popping open the top two buttons. As she threw back her hair, his gaze slowly drifted up to hers. His grin increased in less than a second and she suddenly realized that his eyes were now filled with a depth of longing that made her heart…still momentarily, and then ache in sympathy. It was intense, having him look at her this way right now.

In her mind she was seeing him as a rogue one minute and then as the only man who could take her breath away in the next. These emotions were far more intense than she had wanted right now. 'Keep it light,' she told herself. 'Save this for our date tonight. Remember that tonight is meant to help us remember that we can find a way to share feelings for one another, not remind us of what we cannot have right now.'

It was not easy but, for both of their sakes, she forced herself to swallow over the emotion that the last thought inspired, pushing aside the sorrow that threatened to spoil the mood she was hoping for later on.

--

As the living room clock struck 5:00 pm, Eric knocked on the Possible's door. There ready to greet him were the Doctors P and, of course, James had to give him the curfew lecture and have him promise to have Kimmie home by 10:00 pm. The message was short and sweet. Bring her back home on time and avoid a deep space probe into the nearest black hole. Of course, Eric was already for Kim's father and suggested a 9:30 pm curfew. James was flabbergasted and nodded in agreement. Anne, on the other hand, could only smile. Her thoughts were still with Ron and his confession of his love for Kim from the previous day.

Kim, of course, looked fabulous as she walked down the stairs for their date. She wore her white t-shirt top with the pink heart in the middle, cranberry slacks and tennis shoes for the simple in-the-park dinner date. When she hit the landing her emerald eyes sparkled with expectation and Eric was more than cordial for the sitch. Handing Kim his spare motorcycle helmet, they headed out the door but, almost as an afterthought, he turned to Kim's parents and reassured them that he would have her back home in time.

The hair on the back of Anne's neck started to rise.

Eric just seemed perfect.

Too perfect for her.

--

The picnic dinner was, indeed, beyond Kim's expectations, as Eric had prepared and provided for everything she could possibly want in advance of their date. There, perfectly displayed on a quilt, were chef salads, fruit salad, fresh croissants, a bottle of a very special sparkling purple grape juice, and, to top it off, Kim's favorite chocolate chip cookies.

Soon stuffed to capacity, Kim suggested a short walk to burn off a few of the excess calories. Eric nodded in agreement. He offered his hand to lift her up, ever the perfect gentleman, and Kim accepted graciously. As she arose there was an electricity of emotion that flowed between them or was it something else. Right now it didn't matter.

Holding hands as they walked left, Kim was lost in a euphoria that sent her heart soaring and it continued building until they reached one of her favorite spots to view the setting sun. As they came to her favorite park bench, they sat and she turned to face Eric. The air felt so full of romance. Everything seemed "_perfect"_.

However, Eric seemed a little unsurprised when she approached him, as if he, like her, had been lost in his own thoughts. It was okay, though: she knew how to deal with this and, very carefully, she raised her hand towards him, allowing him to know just where to stop so the illusion was not ruined as she touched his cheek.

"What are you thinking?" Kim whispered, not quite sure at this point where Eric's mind was taking him.

"Thinking about you, Kim." He answered softly, his dark eyes never leaving hers as he tilted his head ever so slightly towards her hand. "Always with you, Kim"

There had been an instant, when she reminisced, when she might have thought that she had misheard Eric, but for some reason things now felt a little different. In fact, no matter what she might think of the moment, she knew, in her mind, that something wasn't right. Still she was caught up in the minute and dismissed the thought as quickly as a shooting star blazing across the sky.

She nodded, even though she was not completely convinced that she should not try to encourage Eric to share whatever had caused his brief lapse into being somewhere else in thought.

His grin, like the spark of mischievous interest now brightened his expression, was somewhat difficult to ignore. It took only a second or two before she found herself returning it, ready and willing. 'If that's what he wants, then I'll let go of everything else and concentrate only on us.' "Okay." She finally agreed. But still in the back of her mind something troubled her. He's just so perfect. It's almost like I'm living a dream. In some way I don't want it to end and in others…it just can't be real.

It was up to her, now, and she knew that he was waiting for her to say or do something,  
but the words, she had come to realize, could never convey the true depths of her new found feelings for him. And until she could reconcile those words, she could not do what she really desired and that was to kiss him. Oh, she wanted to, even now…Heaven only knew that she had tried in the last few days to do that and to tell Eric how much he meant to her. But her own thoughts betrayed her each time.

And those thoughts always came back to Ron as she remembered how his faith in her sustain her and always gave her the strength to go on, day after day. And, truth be told, she knew there might be no end with her relationship with him in saving the world. For some reason, she didn't want that to end. 'That might be all they ever had together,' she reflected to herself.

She sighed; it was a sobering thought: not one. One she had not considered before. But, if Eric was all that she could ever hope for, then she knew it would have to be that way and she needed to play her part to the fullest when that moment came to tell Ron.

"Yes, Kim?" He prompted with more than his usual amount of adult enthusiasm. "And what's okay?"

'As if you didn't already know,' she thought to herself, but she didn't say so. She was too  
busy looking at him sheepishly with her emerald eyes. Besides she decided, it doesn't pay to appear too obvious with Eric.

Now she calmed herself and simply told him what she knew he was waiting to hear. "How about I just show you?"

The kiss was planned to perfection and as their lips drew near…the Kimmunicator loudly beeped its urgent call breaking the moment.

"What's up, Wade?"

"It's mission time, Kim. Urgent call!"

"Can't GJ or Ron handle it?"

"Sorry, Kim: It's danger major, and they want you."

"Right. I'm on my way.

"Sorry, Eric: I've got to go. Pick up where we left off when I get back?" Kim looked at him coyly.

"Perhaps," he said with a devilish look.

Kim responded with her own devilish smile, and her sultry look told him exactly what he wanted to see. Her words had already confirmed what he wanted to hear.

"Come on, Kim: I'll drop you off. "

The motorcycle ride home was romantic under the early star-filled evening sky as Eric took the long way back to her home. It took a bit longer than she anticipated, but that didn't matter.

Holding her arms tightly around his waist, it she made every second worth the ride, and she never wanted it to end. Things couldn't be more perfect…then again there was that nagging feeling in the back of her neck that something just wasn't right, and again, her thoughts turned to Ron.

--

After Eric dropped off Kim he headed up to Upperton Park. At this time of night, it was pretty much vacant from the day's activities. He turned off his motorcycle, stepped off, and went out to meet the approaching individual. Only their moonlit silhouettes could be seen in eerie deformity against a nearby retaining wall.

The man approaching was alone and finishing the last strides of a quick walk across the park's center. He stopped a pace away and surveyed Eric.

"Angels walk in," he grinned and Eric responded "where fools fear to tread."

"I didn't know you were so well-versed and familiar with coded metaphors," Eric replied.

The man shrugged. "Metaphors, devils, angels, teenagers. One knows the enemy, if one is to succeed.

Eric nodded. "Yes. You have no evidence, as yet, that I will succeed with her or that she will yield to you. You know me better than that, however. I know you'll need real proof that I am succeeding, or you'll have to come up with another alternative."

The man's eyes narrowed as if in respect, but he smiled meaningly and did a slow survey of Eric. Suddenly, he reached out a hand and lifted Eric's chin. "You discount the obvious, boy!"

Eric made himself stand still. "I know you better." He jerked his chin away contemptuously, bracing for something but not knowing what."

"Frosting on the cake, my dear teenager. Kim Possible is not as smart as you."

A wry smile appeared on Eric's face. "And she's not as smart as Shego."

"Correct. If Shego can't figure it out then…"

"Kim Possible can't figure it out, either."

A very evil laugh erupted from the two that ominously rent the evening air.

"Now, go and make me proud, SON."

"I will, father."

--

It was lunch time, and Mrs. Dr. P decided to do the unexpected and go home for a sandwich and a little "me" quiet time. Little to her surprise, Ron was sitting on their living room sofa watching the wide screen television and munching on some snackage he had made. On one side of him sat Rufus eating away at several pieces of Gouda and Cheddar cheese. On Ron's other side was Kim's Pandaroo. Ron was snuggled between the two of them like a patient between two psychiatrists. She was about to ask him how things were going when she overheard the TV commentator and decided to stay unobserved in the kitchen to listen.

The talk show host had just asked about finding true love and the well known interviewee responded; "We all deserve to find people who connect with us, who care for us, who make us laugh, who drive us crazy (in a good way), and who make us feel more excited than a popcorn kernel in a working microwave," and the talk show host laughed.

"Of course," the interviewee continued, "we should all strive for our set qualities, not settle for two or three of the total. That said, many of us have unfair expectations of what relationships are supposed to be like.

"Blame it on the movies, or romance novels, or Barbie-and-Ken mythology, but seeking perfection in a relationship isn't noble; it's doomed. Think about the lottery winners: they play with the hope that they'll score big, quit the job, buy a yacht, and party for the rest of their lives.

"But the reality for so many mega-bucks winners is that they end up in a dead-end life with relatives clawing at them and bankruptcy lawyers dividing the spoils. Why? Because their expectations of their fantasy life were far different than the reality, and they end up blowing the so-called 'best thing that ever happened to them.'

"Same goes for relationships. You may hit lucky sevens with a perfect match, but if you don't manage the fantasy with a dose of reality, your heart will be headed for bankruptcy.

"There are four key fantasy vs. reality clashes. Make sure you end up on the right side.

"Number 1:

"Expectation: The Fireworks of Romance

"Reality: The Fireworks of Conflict

"Sure, when sparks fly in a beginning of a relationship, you've got oodles of chemistry, hopes, and anticipation. But to think that every day is going to be a barrel of butter-cream icing is just asking for trouble.

If you're experiencing a lot of passion, you need to manage the 180-degree side of that passion-hard-core conflict. While some see conflict as relationship weakness, it can actually be the opposite - a study, in fact, found that subjects who express their anger have half the risk of heart disease compared with men who internalize it.

"It's a sign that you're communicating, a sign that you both care about the relationship, and a sign that you've got sparks, not complacency.

"Number 2:

"Expectation: The Perfect Package

"Reality: Imperfect Behavior

"When two people meet "the one," they tell all their friends about all the qualities of the new-found lover: Cute, friendly, compassionate, funny, good job, nice shoes, gorgeous body. In other words, perfect!

"Yeah, right, your friends think, and they're probably right. Okay, your new love interest seems to fit 97 of your 100 pieces of criteria for the perfect mate - after the second date. But again, that level of expectation can be an unfair standard that your imperfect companion will never be able to live up to as weeks, months, and years pass.

"Better to admire and appreciate the things that made you swoon. Then, it's up to you to manage the warts and worries (in personality, behavior, hygiene, whatever) that will slowly be introduced the more you get to know them.

"Number 3:

"Expectation: Wild Nights, Sleepy Days

"Reality: Wild Days, Sleepy Nights

"The joys of dating: Party all night, and then lounge around during the day in anticipation of the night ahead. Of course, the initial excitement - about an impending date on the town is one of the main engines that drives the relationship early on.

"That power source will wind down a bit once commitment sets in and routine takes over. Fight the impulse to pull away when you start to feel this relationship shift; spending time with a romantic partner can curb work-related stress and lower blood pressure, according to researchers.

"The most successful couples are the ones who are able to adapt to the fact that crazy work days, the stress of life, and the daily grind of reality will become a stronger force than all-night talks under the stars.

"Number 4:

"Expectation: Complete Immersion

"Reality: Occasional Diversion

"When you start dating someone who drives you to all levels of craziness, you want total saturation. You want to talk on the phone, you want an inbox full of flirty messages, you want five nights a week of dates, you can't stop thinking about them, and everything you say, do, smell, touch, or eat reminds you of that person.

"If that's you, I'm happy for you. That kind of all-consuming infatuation is one of the greatest feelings in life. But it just can't last. And - truth be told - men may maintain an interest in sports, and want to watch a game or two with buds.

"Or women may decide that, heck, those end-of-season sales just can't go on without them. Many couples write off those feelings as evidence that they must be falling out of love. I don't see it that way. I see it as falling into reality, and successful couples know how to change their definition of immersion.

"In fact, researchers have found that those with a wide circle of friends have an easier time dealing with stress and have a lower risk of heart disease than people who rely on only one or two others for support. That is, they don't see immersion as being based on quantity of time together, but rather immersing themselves in each other in whatever time they have-whether it's a lot or not.

"And that, my friends out there in TV Land, is all I have on relationships for this lunch hour. See you tomorrow when we take on the topic of Forgetting that Anniversary."

"Or, the Half-a-Versary," the host joked, and the interviewee stared at him, confused.

Ron sighed and turned off the TV and sat back down on the sofa. How could he ever reach beyond his fantasies and be real with Kim? Too often, his own child-like wonder just got in the way.

"Pandaroo, Rufus: there's got to be some way I can break through this. Someway, I've got to show Kim how much I love her and want to be with her."

"Yup!" Rufus replied.

He thought he was crazy Rufus replied: but he also swore that he heard words coming from Roo, "Be true to your essential Ronness."

"Yeah, that's it," he stated emphatically. And suddenly a small bit of relief from the Eric stress he felt washed away from his soul.

Anne quietly slipped out the garage door, smiling. Perhaps, just perhaps, her quietly spoken phrase would be enough to point Ron in the right direction.

--

Pre-prom jitters had Kim pouncing on the panic button. Fortunately, she had Monique's sanity-saving tips, 'guaranteed to glide her through the day feeling fabulous—not frazzled!'

Kim's dreamy emerald eyes read down the list for the umpteenth time…

'1. Put Everything In Writing, GFGirl.

Jotting down a last-minute to-do list not only helps you get organized but also keeps panic in its place. When you see your errands written down in black and white, they become less overwhelming and more manageable. Keep your list handy, and check things off as you go along: that. That way, you so don't have to stress out about remembering everything - —it's all right there.

Kim nodded her head in agreement. So far, with 'all things quiet on the mission front,' the day had gone by just like Monique had said.

'2. Plan a Snack Attack!, Girlfriend.

If the ticking clock is making you nervous, you can munch your way to a much happier state. Be sure to eat three squares, and snack on carbohydrate-rich foods. Eating carbs releases serotonin, girl, the feel-good brain chemical. So to help stay calm, try chewing on the mood foods: a few graham crackers with peanut butter or some fresh fruit.'

So far, that was working perfectly. For the first time in ages Kim didn't have the Flippies doing their dances on her stomach in anticipation of the evenings events.

'3. Shake It, Baby!

Exercise is 'the three Ps:' the perfect pre-prom preparation. So, raising your heart rate can help dissipate those pre-prom jitters and give you the added benefit of a healthy glow. You don't need a formal workout, either though you'll probably run your usually three miles. Just put on your favorite music and practice your dance moves, too. It will squash your stress.'

Kim giggled to herself and hit the button on her boom box. Monique was right, a few dance moves was exactly what she needed right now and she had them down like a final practice for the High School Cheer Finals competition.

'4. Mon's Dress Tips.

Finally, your prom dress is supposed to be classy; you shouldn't look like you're going to the beach. You don't have to reveal yourself to look good. The more you wear clothing that suits you, the better you look and the more attention you get, GF.'

Kim felt especially cheerful as she put the list down and looked at herself in the mirror again, running down her mental checklist for the final time. Kim looked into her full length mirror. The light blue prom dress, that Eric had suggested she purchase, was wonderful. It was flattering, stylish, subtle, and brought out the gleam in her emerald eyes.

Lipstick color was just right. The color, and how it presented itself on her, would definitely entice any male ('preferably, a certain teenaged young man,' Kim thought with a giggle) to give her an outright kiss on the lips. One could almost feel the warm silk of their beauty whispering.

Hairstyle, of course, was guaranteed to make even Bonnie "jel". It was original and showed she was, indeed, ' full of surprises.'

To top it off Monique had accessorized her with a great set of white high- heeled sandals and matching purse. She smiled at herself and nodded approval. For once, everything seemed to be going her way. Everything was…

"_PERFECT!_"

--

Eric looked in the mirror. If looks could kill, he would, by his own accord, assist in murdering thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of people tonight, if everything worked out according to Dr. Drakken's plans. Since the Diablos were no respecter to persons, anything that got in the way of their programming would surely be destroyed. On impulse, he thought to himself, 'Surely a small price to pay for world domination.'

But this would only work if he was successful in his current mission, and the crucial part of it was control of Kim Possible. And c_rucial_ it was. So much so, in fact, that he had difficulty conceiving of any strategy that did not include it.

There was no human being in the world that could really think in Eric's cold, calculated, multi-valued logic. He was created out of Drakken's own tormented mind, and nobody knew how the good doctor did it. In fact Drakken, himself realized that Eric's made-to-order functions were radically different from his other synthodrones, and that his construct would be the only one of its kind…a creation born more by accidental luck than by his skill.

Eric adjusted his tie and smiled one last time. Within his brain two final thoughts crossed. 'Who checks the thought which is unthinkable? And who quite guarantees the benevolence of the incomprehensible?'

Kim Possible would pose no threat to Drakken's plan, this time. He, Eric, was the distraction, the decoy, in which she was hopelessly in love with. That was all that mattered. In short, everything was…

"…_PERFECT!_"

--

Ron fell back onto his bed and removed his tie. He was so stressed out that he didn't even notice that he was lying on top of Rufus. His stomach did a flip-flop, and he had a headache like a chisel through his skull. "This just hasn't…been my day, Rufus," he groaned and now forced his mind back into focus.

"Rufus, buddy, it's hard, sometimes, to believe in my ability to be or do everything I dream about. Even Kim has her dark moments. But it's how she gets through those moments and pulls strength from them to fuel her. Man, when she does that she can do anything. But what's the use? I'm no KP. I'm just the sidekick, the distraction. Still, I've always got her back. What am I going to do, little buddy?"

Rufus, fortunately by now, had dug himself out from underneath Ron's limp body and shook his head. He knew Ron was suffering but, as his and Ron's stomach growled, there was only one thing that would cure both problems.

Ron spoke the two most wonderful words in the world ('after KP, of course,' Rufus thought): that could sooth a soul in a heartbeat…

"_BUENO NACHO!_" Ron whispered, and Rufus replied:

"…_PERFECT!_"

Ron looked at his little pink friend. "Why not, I really didn't want to go to the prom anyway and watch Kim and Eric dance the night away."

Rufus nodded in agreement.

"Besides, KP needs her space."

He took off his father's powder blue tux and hung it up. "Maybe, someday, I'll wear it, Rufus, but not tonight."

Slowly, Ron changed into his regular clothes and put Rufus in his pocket. He doubted even Bueno Nacho could cheer him up now. He moved even slower downstairs and finally made it outside to his scooter. Hopping on, he saw two shooting stars blaze across the night sky and made a wish:

"I wish I could tell her I love her. I really do."

--

**Author's afterward:**

--

A quick note from the story's protagonist:

I, Pandaroo, have authorized the following:

cpneb, to tell my story, what happened to me during Kim's graduation;

jakt, to write some of my more memorable stories about Kim and me, through the years.

A couple of quick notes: Kim will never admit it to anyone, but she loves the Frankie Valli song, and I like it, as well, so you'll see it referenced by my two storytellers, cpneb and jakt.

I have been on many of Kim's adventures around Middleton, and I thought that you might find some of these tales of interest; they were to me, at least, when they occurred.

I would be extremely remiss if I didn't thank my fans out there for voting for this story in BOTH rounds of the Third Annual Fannie Awards. Even though _**My Eyes…**_ didn't win, your votes meant a lot to ja, kt, cpneb (yes, even the vote hog!), and especially to me: who would have ever thought that that a stuffed animal would gain a following?

Thank you so very much, all of my readers and followers …I have some dust in my eye, that's the reason for the water coming from it….Roo hugs, for everybody!

--

Next, on _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

Chapter 6 – **Headed for city lights …**

--

Thank you, to all of you, for supporting us on this new journey.

Thanks again for reading, and please review.

--

04/26/2008

Idea by K.T. and cpneb. Story by K.T, J.A. and cpneb.

Thanks to Star-eva01 for the beta work. Sir, you ROCK!


	7. 6: Headed for city lights

_**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

Disclaimer/Author's Notes: Kim Possible and all the characters of the show are owned by the Disney Company. The original lyrics to the songs referenced in this story and the music are the property of the respective authors, artists and labels. All other characters can be blamed on the author (he, however, is not responsible for all of their actions at all times, being barely responsible for himself most of the time).

This is a strictly not-for-profit, just-for-fun work.

Enjoy! Please read and review.

**A/N Forward: **

This began as a thought in both the heads of cpneb and kt (of jakt). A few phone calls, some emails, and the idea came brought forth into production.

This joint project between cpneb and jakt is the direct result of the request from a certain eleven year old; resistance was futile, indeed, as one simple question became the opening of the _**Birth, and Rebirth**_ arc.

cpneb will present the main story line, while jakt will presents other major components of the story as it is told.

"Let the adventure begin."

--

Previously, on _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

--

"Wade?"

"Yea, Kim?"

"Why didn't Joss come down for graduation?"

Wade burst into tears.

--

Everyone in the back of the plane looked at the rare sight: Dr. Load, not in control of a sitch, and they all wanted to hug him. Ultimately, Kim did, and she patted his back until he could calm down enough to look up at her and smile through his tears.

"Kim, I've lost Jocelyn, forever. She won't return my calls, she won't talk to me, she won't even talk to her Dad about it," I couldn't believe the look on Wade's face.

Tara and Bonnie both stared at Wade: they didn't know who this Joss was, but they knew what love was, and they were shocked to hear that Wade was so deeply in it at such an early age: he couldn't be any more than 15, if that.

'He is shaping up and on his way to becoming a 'hottie,' though,' crossed both their minds, and they both looked at each other and blushed and giggled.

"How?" Kim asked.

"I found this when we woke up," Kim looked perplexed as Wade pulled out a note with 15 letters on it:

**NEVER**

**AGAIN;**

**AGGIE!**

Then, Kim caught Wade's words, and her face furrowed. "We?"

"Sarah and I," Wade whispered, and Kim's mouth dropped open as she whipped her head around to glare at Sarah, and Sarah blushed beet-red and mouthed 'it's not like that, Kim.'

"_**IT WASN'T LIKE THAT, KIM**_!" Wade yelled. "It was the night after we came back: We came home late, remember, after 3:00 AM, and Sarah crashed over here in the guest room, and she came down to talk to me about Chip, and I started talking to her about Jocelyn, and we fell asleep on my bed, and we woke up hugging each other, and I found the ring on my pillow, and I don't know what I'm going to do, Kim, she's my world, I can't live without her," Wade finally stopped talking, took a deep breath, then began to cry again, even harder.

"He's telling the truth, Kim," Sarah spoke finally, a much softer voice than her normal one. Kim looked up from Wade to Sarah. "Wade was helping me: listening to my rants about Drakken and Zorpox," Ron smiled and grimaced at the same time, "and let me talk about how I feel about Chip, and we fell asleep.

"Kim, Wade's like my little brother: I would never do anything to hurt him or Jocelyn, especially not their relationship: I love her like a feisty little sister," she added, and Kim grinned.

"What am I gonna _**do**_, Kim?" Wade, looking like a whipped puppy, had finally calmed down enough to ask his question, and the plane was silent except for the air flowing from the vents above the seats and the wind whistling outside as the jet flew towards Orlando.

--

And, now, _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You:**_

Chapter 6 – **Headed for city lights …**

--

"Wade, have you tried to talk to her?" Ron asked, and I saw Wade look up and smile, weakly.

"Ron, I sent her a holo of what happened that night; C. P. has it, and he went to the Bunker to see Nurse Jackie," Wade smiled, and Kim swatted at him and giggled.

"A hologram?" Bonnie asked, and Wade nodded to her.

Bonnie, Tara, and Sarah all looked at each other: there was obviously a story about this 'Jackie' person.

"C. P. headed up the same day as we had our visitors, Ron," Wade continued to smile, but I could see it was a bit stronger, now, "but I haven't heard from him since the landings, so I don't know whether or not Joss saw it."

"That's right, Bonnie," Wade answered her, "I keep full recordings of the events in my room for GJ legal purposes," Wade explained, and Bonnie and Tara began to realize just how important what Wade did was to Kim and Ron's efforts.

Kim continued to hold me, and I loved how her wonderful long fingers stroked my back as she held me on my side.

'Oh, yes, Kim, that feels wonderful,' I wanted to tell her. 'Can you do this for another, say…six years?'

Hey, she felt good, and it felt good to be held by her again…especially since I thought I'd never see her again.

Darn it: I got something in my eye…that's what I had the urge to tear up. Lucky for me, I'm a 'Roo, and everyone knows that 'Roos don't cry.

"So, what happened while we were in space?" Kim asked. "Warhok and Warmonga seemed unnerved when they were on the surface, a bit less confident than when they were in the ship."

"It might have had something to do with your Nana," Tara laughed. "She pulled together a team that kicked alien butt, big time," Tara announced with pride, and Kim stared at Esther in shock.

"_**Nana**_?" Kim asked, and Esther nodded with a smile.

"Who else?" Ron asked, and Sarah blushed as Nana nodded in her direction.

"Sarah and Monique worked with me, and I'd take them into battle: any day, any time," Esther announced and Sarah ducked her head a bit so she couldn't look at Kim or Ron. I could see her eyes, though, and she was happy that she was getting recognition.

"Sarah? Mon?" Ron's voice cut through the silence, and she looked up at Ron's huge smile.

"Hey, it wasn't like I had an exoskeleton like Justine and Mr. Barkin's mad combat skills," Sarah lifted her head and smiled.

"Exoskeleton?" Kim asked, incredulous, and Needles laughed.

"You've been out of the loop, for once, granddaughter," Needles laughed. "Let me fill in a few gaps," and I leaned back against Kim (oh, she was sooo soft and fell sooo good) to listen to Needles tell her story….

--

"After Sarah and I went back to change," Esther began, "well, after I changed, and Sarah showed me some of her moves, we took off on foot to Wade's house. When we got there, we found his front door open and heard someone in Wade's room, and we could see a flashlight in there, as well.

"We walked down the hall and saw…"

"'Monique?' Sarah called, and Monique lifted her head and shone the flashlight back at us.

"Sarah? Mrs. Possible? What are _**you two**_ doing here?"

"'We should ask you the same question, Monique,' I asked, and Sarah was looking at Monique and notice that she had changed clothes: she wore dark brown slacks and shoes that looked like they had kicked butt recently, and Monique's blouse was no silk fru-fru, either," Needles said, and she looked up when she heard a chortle.

"Fru-fru?" Ron tried to stop his laugh, but Needles glared at him, and he quickly shut up.

"Monique told me she was getting the wrist grapplers and some little 'surprises'," Sarah looked at Wade and grinned, and Wade smiled and blushed a bit, "that Wade had been working on for you, Kim," she continued as the jet continued to cut through the clouds on our way to Orlando.

"Look!" Ron yelled, and Kim looked out the window and held me up so I could see:

The top half of the St. Louis Arch was…gone, like it had been sliced off.

"We're gonna be busy, people," Wade absently commented, and there was no response to his words.

The quiet dampened the mood of everyone on the jet, and the craft continued to knife its way through the skies.

"Anyway," Needles continued, and Kim turned me back to face her and leaned me back against her (oh, yes, eat your heart out, Ron!), "Monique pulled out three large bags from a cabinet that was almost invisible in the wall.

"I never noticed that before," Sarah smiled as she took one of the bags offered from Monique. "What has he been working on this time?"

"Remember the Mathier?" Monique asked, and Sarah nodded. "Well, he had those marbles that he tossed that would dissolve what they touched. Wade took the idea and 'ramped it up a notch or two," Monique grinned. "These little 'jewels', when they hit something and break open, will eat thru anything faster than Rufus thru a crate of Gouda," Monique added with a laugh as she loaded several of the 'pellets' into a side pouch she was wearing and hooked one bag to her belt and loaded the other into an air pistol that looked like it had spent several months working out with Midas, and she clipped it to her belt.

"Where'd you get the belt, Monique?" Sarah asked, and Monique laughed.

"Remember when Kim went to Milan? Well, I picked up some actual original ideas from the Fashionistas when I wasn't getting punched and kicked covering Kim's back," she laughed when Sarah and Esther both stared over imaginary eyeglasses and furrowed their brows. "Well, I was doing the 'Ron' thing, and it worked. Anyway, I listened to Kim and 'played to my strengths' when I fought them: I 'accessorized,' she smiled she clipped on the wrist grappler.

"Here," she tossed a grappler to Sarah, and Sarah caught it and clipped it on.

Monique tossed one to Esther, and Esther caught it and deftly clipped it on her wrist. Esther bowed to Sarah, and Sarah bowed back, her head rising with a smile on her face.

"So, _**that's**_ where Kim got it from," Sarah laughed, and Esther nodded.

"Let's go kick some," Monique un-holstered her weapon, Sarah did the same to hers, and Esther snapped a Bo staff together.

"A Bo staff?" Sarah asked, and Esther nodded and smiled.

"With a kicker," Esther added. "A gift from an old friend in the military," she smiled as one end flashed red, and then the threesome left Wade's house.

--

"We came out of the house and found out first targets within minutes," Monique said as we continued to fly. "The pellets worked wonders: they took chunks out of the legs of the creatures, and two well-placed shots would take out a leg and down a creature; we figured that out, after a few attempts," she smiled, and I saw Kim look at her with a new respect.

"And, she made that outfit look good, Kim," Sarah laughed, and Monique chuckled. "Seriously, Kim, you are going to need to get more help from her for clothes: I'm certainly going to go to her for more advice," she added.

Ron looked out the window and saw machines, standing and motionless where they had lost power, and he shuddered and glowed blue for a second.

"Monique took out at least five of the machines, the most important being the one that was heading for the Middleton Mall," Esther laughed.

"Ron, they already had taken out Bueno Nacho, I'm sorry," Monique reached out her hand, and Ron reached across and held it.

"I know: I saw it when Mr. Dr. P. and I were heading to the Space Center."

"They avoided Cow 'n Chow, though," Monique laughed.

"Figures: why is it _**never**_ Cow 'n Chow?" Ron whined, and everyone laughed.

"We did manage to keep two of them from doing too much damage to J. P. Berrymore's and MTS," Sarah added, "and we had run out of ammo, even after reloads from Wade's house, when they stopped, for some reason," Esther nodded.

I laughed as I thought, 'it's all right, ladies: the PFPs are safe,' and I swear that I felt Kim's hands grab my fur in excitement and antici…pation.

NAAAAA.

"Several turned and headed off in one direction, and some just froze, but even those remaining froze in place after a few minutes," Esther added.

"Ron was amazing," Kim said, and everyone turned to see her face. "I had been knocked semi-conscious, and I found out later that Warhok had promised me as a trophy to Warmonga when Ron called him out. He threw me away," she stopped, and Ron wrapped his arms around Kim as she ducked her head. "He threw me away," Kim lifted her head, and tears were streaming down her face, "he tossed me aside like yesterday's garbage, and he went after Ron.

"Kim, you didn't see what happened after that, but I have the video," Wade spoke, and everyone but Ron turned and stared at him with shocked looks on their faces. "Hey, Ron did accuse me of having the whole world wired," Wade laughed, "but I found their signal when they came back to earth, and I was able to tap into security cameras after they got to a single point in Middleton, so I captured the entire event."

Ron stared at Wade: I knew what he wanted to ask, and he was afraid to ask it...

Almost.

"What happened to Warhok and Warmonga, Wade? Did I kill them?" he asked.

"I don't know for certain, Ron," Wade answered honestly. "There was a flash when they and their falling ship collided, and I know you didn't intend to have them hit the ship, but there's no trace of them, anywhere. We haven't examined all of the fragments of the ship; heck, we haven't even **found** all of the fragments of the ship: we're kinda busy starting to figure out how to pull the planet back together," Wade grinned.

"Ron, look at it this way: no one on this planet will see you as anything but a hero," he added.

"You're certainly mine," Kim purred, and Ron turned and stared at her. She gave him a 'come-hither' finger wag, and he leaned in.

"Kiss me, my hero," she murmured, and their lips locked.

'YES!' I yelled loud enough for the plane to shake. 'She's _finally_ got it!'

When they finally separated, they looked up, embarrassed, but Esther laughed.

"It's about time, you two: you finally understand what you're going to have when you get married, and it's going to be such an adventure," she smiled, but she winced for a moment before continuing. I don't think that anyone else saw her wince except me, and that worried me...

"I lost count of the number of machines I took out," she began.

"17," Monique interjected.

"But I know that Sarah took out 20 of them," Esther added

"And, Monique took out 25," Sarah added. "Esther, that Bo staff was a surprise, indeed," she grinned.

"I taught my granddaughter to be 'full of surprises,'" Esther smiled, and Ron and Wade both laughed loud.

"'Counting coup,' ladies?" Bonnie asked, and Sarah turned and smiled at her.

"Complete with the notches in the weapons, Bonnie," she replied, and I could tell that Bonnie finally understood just who Sarah Janine Best was…she wasn't a 'nobody,' or a bottom-feeder on the Food Chain.

'Thank you,' Bonnie mouthed, and Sarah blushed.

"We're coming in to the Orlando Airport: there's no one in the tower, so we're going to have to fly over to find out what runway is open before we land," the voice came over the intercom.

"Why are we," Wade began, but the voice cut him off.

"We're not using VTOL, Dr. Load," the voice clearly knew Wade too well, "because we want to get the patient on the ground as fast as possible, so we'll pop the break-chutes when we come in: that'll get us to the gate much quicker."

"Oh," Wade replied, and Nana laughed.

I always liked her laughs….

"What happened to Mr. Barkin and Justine?" Ron asked, and Wade's moribund mood was broken when he laughed.

"I _**could**_ tell you, Ron, but then I'd just have to kill you," Wade smiled, and Kim laughed at Ron's wince. "Let's just say that Mr. Barkin has a much better respect for Justine and her tech than he did after the kinematics continuum disruptor she created," he added, and Kim remembered that time far too well, but she also remembered her time at the Bunker with Justine.

Ron smiled as he thought of Justine and her new-found self-confidence, not to mention her beau of the last almost-year, 'Big Mike' Cotton. 'I knew you could do it, Justine,' Ron thought, and he mentally blew her a kiss.

"We're coming in," the voice announced. "Please fasten your seat belts and return your tray tables and seats to the upright position. Also, return all materials to the stowage compartments and under the seats. On behalf of the flight crew, we would like to thank you for flying with Global Justice Airlines." The voice spoke in a completely serious tone until the very end when it could no longer keep calm and let loose a burst of laughter. Then, it added again in a completely serious and business tone, "Remember, everyone, we're coming in a bit hot."

I winced as Kim hugged me. I guess my heart was worse than I thought, but being held by Kim, and seeing her happy with Ron, made it all worthwhile.

--

The ride to the CuddleER was interesting, to say the least:

Lindsey brought us in as smooth as a baby's…well, it was smooth. We came in hot...that was a fun landing, and stopping was an adventure, too.

Tara unbuckled first (those moves, and those legs) followed by Bonnie (Ah, Bonnie, sleeveless: I still couldn't believe she ripped silk for me!), and the two of them helped Rebecca Jane and Lindsey get the door opened and the steps down.

We all headed out, and there was an ambulance waiting for me, along with two more MumVees, and-

"WILL!" Lindsey screamed, and she ran down the steps and into his arms and got a huge hug and kiss as we all watched in surprise.

"I thought you were in Montana," she said, and I saw Wade wince.

"I was, but I got C. P., Slim, and Joss to Middleton about 20 minutes after you took off, so I high-tailed it for Orlando to make the arrangements for ground transportation," he smiled, and he got another kiss for that. I watched Will Du getting kissed...Will Du? Now, I wondered, for just a second, what it must be like to be kissed by Lindsey…but it was for just a second. After all, I am a one-woman Roo.

"Will?" Wade looked up at Will, and I thought that Will was going to cry, Wade looked so lost. "How _**is**_ she?"

"She made it through the invasion up there, Wade. Kim," Will turned and faced Kim and bowed, "I have gained a great deal of respect for your cousin after the last few days, and I suspect that I owe you several apologies for my behavior over the past few months," Will smiled, but Wade would have none of it.

"**WHAT DID SHE **_**SAY**_**, WILL?**" Wade grabbed him by the lapels and shook him. It was an image that I never thought I would see in my life: Wade attacking someone, much less a Global Justice Agent, and in particular Will Du.

"She was coming to Middleton, Wade, but she didn't tell me anything. C. P. was smiling, though, so I hope-"

Wade was hugging Will Du. I knew I was dying, or that the world was coming to an end, or that I'd start seeing dogs and cats, living together.

Nana strapped me to the gurney in the ambulance, but she almost didn't get me from Kim's arms.

"Now, dear, let's see if the flight did any more damage," and she lifted the bandage gingerly that Bonnie made.

"**WILL: CUDDLE-ER, STAT!**" she commanded, and Will floored it.

"How bad, Nana?" Kim asked, and I could hear her crying.

"Kimberly Ann, don't worry: his heart is strong, and the transplant itself is already there and waiting for us, and so is the transplant team. Besides, we're only 9 minutes out from the ER, so there aren't any problems to worry about," she told Kim.

Kim leaned over me, and I felt her tears fall onto my body.

"Don't you dare die on me, Pandaroo!" she ordered.

'Yes, Ma'am,' I replied. I wasn't about to cross her when she got into one of those moods.

The ride was quiet and fast, and in minutes we pulled up hard to the ER doors. The back of the ambulance flew open, and the crew got the gurney out so smoothly I almost couldn't tell I was moving.

"Pandaroo," Tara looked down, and she blew me a kiss. "I'll see you when you come out, ok? You're gonna be ok," she added, and she turned, but I heard her sobs and saw her shaking.

"Hey," Bonnie stepped up and smiled, and her 'Queen Bee' aspect re-appeared. "You owe me a blouse, and I intend to collect, so you'd better get well, alright?" She was acting all royal and haughty, but I could tell that she cared with the love in her word. How could I ever disappoint a voice like that?

'All right, BonBon, and thank you for caring so much: I'll see what I can do about getting you a Cuddle Buddy,' I told her when she leaned over and kissed me.

Hey, I'm stuffed, not dead, and she is gorgeous. I could stand to be hugged and kissed by her for a long, long time: Me, between BonBon and Tara….

"You'll be fine, 'Roo," Wade gave me a thumbs' up, but there were tears in his eyes.

'So will you, Wade: so will you,' I replied.

"Roo, you'll be fine," and I felt Ron's hand touch me, and I felt energy attempt to enter me.

"I am so sorry, Master, you cannot give him your energy: he is not one you can help, except by loving him," the voice said inside my head.

"Snap," Ron grinned. He was willing to give **his** energy, to **me**? I was right about Ron: he **is** a special guy, and he loves me, too.

I just might make it through all this, knowing that, but then-

"Roo," I looked up into my favorite emerald gems, and they were shining back at me and dumping water onto me at the same time.

"I love you, 'Roo, but you know that already," she took my hand in hers.

'I know, Kim, and I love you, too.'

"I want you to know that, if you don't make it…" she broke down, and Ron took her away, smiling back at me in a knowing smile, and I entered the Surgical E/R.

--

"Hello, Needles," the doctor called out.

"Hello, Susan: I'm glad to see that you made it through all of this," I watched Esther wave her gloved hands and put her mask in place.

"Ready here, Doctors," the anesthesiologist called out.

"Transplant team ready, Doctors," the team leader called out.

"Start him on a full dose, Mel: I don't want him to feel a thing," I heard Needles speak right before the mask was placed over my face.

"You'll be fine, Pandaroo: you've been with my granddaughter for far too long, and I know that, if nothing else, she's taught you-"

'I can do anything,' I looked up and saw Kim in the observation room with Ron and the rest, and then my eyes closed….

--

"More leaves, Pandaroo?" that lovely voice was familiar, and I turned my head.

"Why, yes, thank you, Kim," I replied, and Kim fed me eucalyptus leaves and handed me a glass of sparkling water. I drank deeply, and then I looked down:

"You like the tux? I had Monique design it for you," she smiled, and I could live with that smile forever.

"I do, Kim: thank you."

--

"Now, let's see the heart, up close and personal," Needles said as she removed the makeshift bandage carefully and placed it, folded, on the stand.

"Will you look at that?" Dr. Nith said as Nana lifted the heart from the chamber. "Someone must have made a mistake; that heart is the size for a baby Pandaroo, not an adult."

"No, Susan, this is right: I was there when this one came off the line: the heart literally filled the chamber. I remember because I thought that Kimberly Anne would need a Pandaroo with a big heart."

"But, the heart's only 35 percent the size, at best, Needles. What happened to the rest of it?"

"Something wonderful, Susan: he has been giving his heart, literally, to the ones he loved," Esther said as she held the heart in her hands. "I've only seen that once before, about six years ago, but everyone was convinced that it was an error. Well, this is no error, Susan: this 'Roo is one special creature," Esther smiled, "and he deserves a special solution.

"I'm going to do a heart graft: keeping this one and grafting on the new organ to bring it back to full capacity, and we'll restart it after the graft is complete," and the room became silent.

"That's never been done before," the transplant lead called out after he hit the button, turning off the speakers to the observation room.

"It's impossible," came from another doctor on the transplant team, and Needles laughed.

"'Check my name, Doctors: 'anything's Possible,' for a Possible," Esther smiled, and Susan laughed.

--

"And, for you, Pandaroo, your fav-" and the music started before Kim finished speaking, and I recognized the silhouette, and the music, and he started:

"My…

"Eyes…

"Adored you," and the harp strings sang as **he** appeared from the shadows, stepped into the spotlight, and began to sing.

"Though I never laid a hand on you,

"My eyes, adored you," and more of those wonderful harp glissandos….

--

"Graft is complete: we're ready to replace the heart," Needles called out.

"That's not going to fit," the transplant team leader said. "It's 30 per cent bigger than the cavity."

"It fits," Dr. Susan Nith said with amazement. "How did you do … never mind," she laughed, "I don't want to know."

"What was that you put between final sutures?" The other transplant doctor asked. "It looked…different," he added.

"Three gold shavings," Esther said as she finished the final sutures to reconnect the heart.

"Why?"

"Kim's always said that Pandaroo had a heart of gold," Esther said as she looked up to the observation glass. Kim had left, and Ron had said that she couldn't take it.

"Nana, she's scared, and I've never seen her act this scared, or this upset before," he explained, but then he smiled. "I'm going to talk to her, maybe get her to take a nap, and I'll be back," he clicked the microphone and left the room.

--

"So close, so close, and yet so far," he wrapped it up, and I applauded.

"Beautiful," I said, feeling my face wet with tears. I love the song, and I especially love the way he does it.

Then, HE came over and sat down, across from me.

"Hey, guy, we were worried about you," he smiled.

"Me? Why?"

"Well, you faded out a couple of times on the flight down here," he explained.

"I did?"

"Yep," he grinned, "you missed the discussion about Steve and Justine; it went on longer than you remember."

"Wow."

"But, you're going to be all right, now: you've got the best surgeon, the best team, and," he reached his hand across and took Kim's hand, placing it on top of mine, "The love of a good woman," and I swear that Kim blushed!

"I know," I smiled. "She's the best thing that ever happened to me; well, besides Ron giving me to her."

"**You** are the best thing that ever happened to me, Pandaroo...well, besides Ron," I turned and looked at Kim, and she was laughing and crying at the same time. "You've put up with my rants, my pouts, my blindness to real love," she smiled, "and, all the time, you never judged me."

"I _did_ want to slap you 'up side the head,' once or twice," I laughed, and she laughed with me.

"I love you, Kim: you know that, don't you?"

"I know, Pandaroo, and I love you, too."

"But, I'm willing to share you with Ron," I laughed, and she blushed, but then she got a look, and she leaned forward and kissed my cheek.

I felt her warmth, her softness, her love, all flowing through her lips, and I knew I'd never wash that cheek for the rest of my life.

"It's time, guy," he told me as he stood and took Kim's hand from me, and they stepped back from the table.

"So soon?"

"Now, we get to see if it all takes," he said, and really bright white lights flooded my vision….

--

Needles came out of the ER, her mask still on.

Kim stood, and she squeezed Ron's hand as he stood.

"Nana, is Pandaroo all right?"

Dr. Esther Andrea Possible hesitated before she reached for her mask….

--

**Author's afterward:**

--

A quick note from the story's protagonist:

I, Pandaroo, have authorized the following:

cpneb, to tell my story, what happened to me during Kim's graduation;

jakt, to write some of my more memorable stories about Kim and me, through the years.

A couple of quick notes: Kim will never admit it to anyone, but she loves the Frankie Valli song, and I like it, as well, so you'll see it referenced by my two storytellers, cpneb and jakt.

I would be extremely remiss if I didn't thank my fans out there for voting for this story in BOTH rounds of the Third Annual Fannie Awards. Even though _**My Eyes…**_ didn't win, your votes meant a lot to ja, kt, cpneb (yes, even the vote piggy: he was worse about votes than Joss is about the sparkling grape juice!), and especially to me: who would have ever thought that that a stuffed animal would gain a following?

Thank you so very much, all of my readers and followers …I still have some of that dang dust in my eye, that's the reason for the water coming from it….Roo hugs, for everybody!

--

Next, on _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

**Chapter 7: ****Make Believe You're Married to Me ….**

--

Thank you, to all of you, for supporting us on this new journey.

Thanks again for reading, and please review.

--

All Rights Reserved. Kim Possible Characters © The Walt Disney Company, USA.

05/10/2008

Idea by K.T. and cpneb. Story by K.T, J.A. and cpneb.

Thanks to jakt and Star-Eva01for beta work. Their suggestions and thoughts are timely and appreciated, as always.


	8. 7: Make believe you're married to me

_**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

Disclaimer/Author's Notes: Kim Possible and all the characters of the show are owned by the Disney Company. The original lyrics to the songs referenced in this story and the music are the property of the respective authors, artists and labels. All other characters can be blamed on the author (he, however, is not responsible for all of their actions at all times, being barely responsible for himself most of the time).

This is a strictly not-for-profit, just-for-fun work.

Enjoy! Please read and review.

**A/N Forward: **

This began as a thought in both the heads of cpneb and kt (of jakt). A few phone calls, some emails, and the idea came brought forth into production.

This joint project between cpneb and jakt is the direct result of the request from a certain eleven year old; resistance was futile, indeed, as one simple question became the opening of the _**Birth, and Rebirth**_ arc.

cpneb will present the main story line, while jakt will presents other major components of the story as it is told.

"Let the adventure begin."

--

Previously, on _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

Ron looked at his little pink friend. "Why not, I really didn't want to go to the prom anyway and watch Kim and Eric dance the night away."

Rufus nodded in agreement.

"Besides, KP needs her space."

He took off his father's powder blue tux and hung it up. "Maybe, someday, I'll wear it, Rufus, but not tonight."

Slowly, Ron changed into his regular clothes and put Rufus in his pocket. He doubted even Bueno Nacho could cheer him up now. He moved even slower downstairs and finally made it outside to his scooter. Hopping on, he saw two shooting stars blaze across the night sky and made a wish:

"I wish I could tell her I love her. I really do."

--

And, now, _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You:**_

Chapter 7 – **Make believe you're married to me…**

--

'The hall light tried to sneak in under the door, and the streetlamp tried to enter through the closed blinds: neither had a great deal of success, and the room remained, for the most part, ominously dark, even foreboding, as it had been since she left on the last mission across the Pond. Something was up, but I couldn't put my paw on it: something just didn't feel right.

'The silence was only broken by the soft, wrong-sick, ticking of the digital clock that Wade had made and given her as a gag gift. It would only show one time: 3:10 A. M., unless you yelled at the clock; that would reset it to show the actual time. Wade, even more evil, had added the 'ticking' of the clock to remind her of Ron 'saving her nose' on that one particular mission. For a brilliant PhD, his warped sense of humor was often more than Kim could bear…for me I just 'grinned and 'beared' it.'

'Hey, who says that I don't have a sense of humor?'

The silence was only broken by the soft ticking of the digital clock that Wade had given her as a gag gift. It would only show one time: 3:10 A. M., unless it was reset to show the actual time.

Soft, tired, dragging steps could be heard coming from outside of the room, approaching up the stairs, and then the doorknob turned, and light flooded the room as the tired warrior trudged in and tossed her bag onto the end of the bed. She fell across the middle of her bed and reached over-

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-de-BEEP.

She pulled out her cell phone and flipped it open.

"Hello, Dr. Director," even her smile belied her exhaustion.

Silence, and a soft chuckle.

"Yes, Betty, I got some work done on the flight back, even _with_ Ron next to me."

Silence, and a louder chuckle.

"Yes, Betty, he _is_ a distraction, but I love being distracted by him."

Silence

"Yes, we're still on, although I have no idea why you'd want me to sing with you. I've worked on the piece, and I still think it's wonderful, even if I'm going to sing a part," she laughed.

Silence.

"Christmas Eve afternoon for the rehearsal: got it."

"It's no big, Betty," she replied, and she looked shocked for a moment.

"Making people happy? Are they looking for Byzantine 'torture by singing,' or do they just want to see me make a fool of myself?" She laughed, but she quickly stopped. "I'll do my best not to make you look bad, Dr. Director, and thanks for the opportunity."

Silence, then...

"Good-bye," and she flipped her phone shut and sighed, reaching for her beloved Pandaroo and placing him on her stomach.

"Did you hear what I just did, Pandaroo? I just agreed to sing on Christmas Eve night with Elizabeth Director in front of a packed church!"

'And your point is…what, Kim?' Pandaroo looked at the frightened 17-year-old, the same young woman who regularly took on super-villains, and she was scared of singing?

"What was I thinking?" she started to cry.

'You can do it, Kim: I believe in you,' Pandaroo thought, and Kim suddenly felt a calmness that she often felt when she came to Pandaroo with her worries. She, somehow, seemed to always be able to resolve them with his help.

"I know, you'd tell me 'Kim, you can do anything, and that includes singing in public for the first time in a long time,'" she smiled through her tears and wiped her face with the back of her hand.

"When we were flying home, Ron told me that same thing when I told him that Betty had asked me to sing with her. He believes in me, Pandaroo, even after all these years, and after the way I've treated him all this time, ignoring him for one hottie after another, while he stood there on the sidelines, always waiting for me when I came back, heartbroken and a little worse for wear. And, still, he was so filled with 'Ronshine' that my 'food chain' defeats never lasted long. I often ask myself how he did it, but I don't really want to know," she smiled at Pandaroo. "Somehow, though, I feel that you know: don't know how I know you know, but I just do.

"He was always there, Pandaroo, just like you are," she smiled.

'Hey, what can I say? We're both a pair of one-woman guys when it comes to you, Kim.'

"Pandaroo, you know what?" Kim whispered conspiratorially. "I caught myself doing something a few weeks ago that I hadn't done since fourth grade: I caught myself signing my name Kim Stoppable. Isn't that pathetic, Pandaroo?" she laughed.

'Personally, I'd go for the hyphenated, but, then again, I'm a liberated 'roo.'

"I can't believe I was doing that, and I was doodling hearts around the name, too! Am I crazy, or what?" She laughed.

'Crazy in love with a man who's crazy in love with you: what's the problem with that, Kim?'

"After I ran Bonnie off from him, after I made him choose me over Justine, I went off and dated every hottie I could find, and he never left me.

"Now, that's a true friend, Pandaroo," she reached up and hugged me.

'Kim, if you only knew how he really felt…

--

The window opened, and Ron Stoppable came in.

Ron came over early, long before he was supposed to meet Kim for the mission to Scandinavia. He was reticent to go because of the whole 'meat cake' issue, but Wade assured him that he wouldn't have to deal with any on this trip.

Kim: well, she was out on a mission of her own with Monique.

Ron decided that he couldn't hold his excitement in, any longer, so he almost flew into her room, literally ran to her bed, grabbed Pandaroo up, and hugged him tightly. Then, he took him by the arms and twirled him around in the air as he spun, himself.

"I did it, Pandaroo! I did it!" he shouted softly, and he put Pandaroo on Kim's desk and sat in her chair.

"I did it," and he reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring box.

'_**OH, NO YOU DIDN'T!**_' Pandaroo yelled.

Ron opened the box, and the brilliant diamond sparkled in the light.

'Ron, I'd change sexes and marry you for that rock: it's _gorgeous_!'

"Pandaroo, I've decided that I can't live without her in my life, and I want to make that commitment to her that I will always 'have her back, in sickness and in health,'" Ron grinned as he pulled the ring from the box and held it up in front of Pandaroo. "What do you think, guy: think she'll say yes to me?"

'If she doesn't, Ron, I'm taking her brain out and washing it with Drakken's 'Lather, Rinse, and Obey' shampoo from the discontinued products (aisle 666) in Smarty-Mart.'

"She has to like it, Pandaroo: these last few months have been my dream come true: dating Kim has been the best thing, besides first meeting her, that has ever happened to me in my entire life."

Then, Ron got that look he gets when he starts to think about what can go wrong, and Pandaroo became worried.

"But, what if she says 'no,' Pandaroo? I can't believe she'll do it, but what if, guy?

"What if I put my heart out there, and she stomps that sucka flat?" Ron grimaced for a few moments, and then the Ronshine re-emerged, brighter than ever.

"NAAAA! Even after the being exposed as a cheater, a liar, and a thief in the 'secret borrowing' sitch," and Pandaroo had to laugh when Ron used 'air quotes,' "she still wanted to be around me as long as I was honest. I may have 'bent' the BFBF/BFGF rules a bit," Ron chuckled, "but I'm as tried and true to my KP as she is to me. It showed after Warmonga, when she took my hand, and we walked off the football field together, like something out of the Mousy Network.

"I loved the touch of her hand in mine, Pandaroo. Her hugs send me into orbit, and her kisses," he smiled dreamily, "well, her kisses male Mr. Dr. P's 'black hole deep space probes' seem all worth it.

"If she'd do all that, Pandaroo," Ron waved the ring in front of his silent partner, "she'll say 'yes;' I just know it.

"Now, you can't tell her, alright?" Ron grinned. "This'll be our secret, just between us guys, all right?"

'My lips are sealed, Ron-man: I'll never tell, just as long as you don't start singing-' but it was too late, and Ron began to sing:

"Ron….exciting and new," he sang, and Pandaroo grimaced.

'If only I had a branch for every time he's sung that song in here, I'd have my own forest for the next 150 years,' Pandaroo laughed as Ron continued to sing, going over and grabbing a totally-unprepared Raggedy-Ann, and he danced with her as he sang the entire song.

--

Kim came into her room with the long bag containing the choir robe she'd brought back from the church, and she smiled at Pandaroo.

"Roo, Ron will be in the audience tonight to hear me sing!"

'Well, D'OI, Kim: did you think he'd miss 'Kim's big night?''

"I can't believe that he's giving up family time to be with me, time with his parents and Hana for her first holiday season as a Stoppable…of course, maybe Ron's just doing it to avoid cleaning the footprints from the ceiling," Kim laughed.

"Even better, Pandaroo: Joss and Wade and Wade's family will be there!

"I'm so happy for Wade that he's able to get out now, and I'm even happier that he and Joss like each other so much. It **was** a bit of a surprise, kinda like finding out just how Wade got my measurements for the first battlesuit," Kim grinned, "but, in the end, it all worked out for the best.

"Kimmie?"

"Yes, Mom?" and Dr. Anne Possible came in the door, still wearing her outdoor coat.

"How was the rehearsal?"

"It went great! They thought I was wonderful, but it was really Betty's singing that carried it: I just sorta followed along.

"I doubt that," Anne grinned. "We assumed that you were driving yourself to the church, so your father and I are taking the boys out for dinner before the service: we figured that, that way, they couldn't pre-plan any surprises for you. We'll take them out afterwards for ice cream at Mr. Fudgies': that way," Anne smiled, "you and Ron can have some Christmas Eve time, together, just the two of you.

"Besides, I think your father is craving some strawberry topping," Anne grinned, and Kim mouthed 'TMI, MOM!' with a big laugh.

"Thanks, Mom," Kim replied, and Ann turned and headed out of the room.

"Mom?" Kim asked, and Anne stopped and turned.

"How was the operation?"

"It went fine; in fact, better than fine. I managed to catch one of the last flights back here so I could hear my daughter sing in public," Anne smiled, and Kim blushed: a light pink.

Anne grinned, turned, and headed out of the room once again. "You'll be fine, Kimmie: I just know it," she called over her shoulder as she closed the bedroom door and headed down the stairs.

"Everybody thinks I'll be fine…except me," Kim groused.

'You'll do fine, Kim: I believe in you.'

"That one part is still a bit tricky, though," and Kim stood straight and began to softly sing:

"Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,  
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.  
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,  
Here came the wise men from Orient land."

Kim looked over at Pandaroo and smiled. "What do you think, Pandaroo? Will I make a fool out of myself?"

'This room got awfully dusty, all of a sudden, otherwise I wouldn't have all this water in my eyes,' Pandaroo said. 'That was beautiful: His angels couldn't have done it any better.'

Kim hummed while she started to get ready to take a bubble bath before the performance tonight, but she stopped for a moment as she pulled her bathrobe on to head across the hall for her silent time.

"Pandaroo, I have been truly blessed: I have parents who love me, brothers who care enough about me to harass me day and night," she smiled as she heard Jim and Tim bounding down the stairs, "wonderful friends, a super-genius who watches out for me, and a BFBF who is beyond even my expectations," she smiled into her mirror on the back of her bedroom door. "He truly loves me, and I can't imagine what it would be like to not have him in the audience tonight.

'Kim, if you only knew what he has planned for you over the next 24 hours,' Pandaroo laughed.

'It's been a wonderful school year, Pandaroo: Bonnie and I haven't let the digs and smart-mouth remarks fly...well, not too often, anyway; cheer squad has been wonderful, classes have been great, and even the villains have been cooperative…well, except for that big green Warmonga," Kim shuddered. "I hope I never see her again," she added as she caressed her robe.

"But, walking off the football field, holding Ron's hand after that; well, that was one of the highlights of my fall semester. I felt like a queen, even though Bonnie did go OC and hijack the Homecoming votes.

"Ron has been a saint all fall," she began, and then she stopped suddenly and thought. "No, he's been a saint ever since I met him. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful BFBF," she said as she opened the door and headed for the bathroom.

'Your lips may say 'yes,' but there's something wrong, Kim: please, for me, let it out,' Pandaroo said to the empty room.

--

"The rehearsal went well, I had my bubble bath, no Tweebs to upset me before the concert, and I'll meet Ron before I go on," Kim said as she brushed her hair one final time after she checked to make sure she could slip the choir robe on without messing up her hair. "I've got a really good feeling about this sitch, Pandaroo. It's gonna be a good night." Kim laughed as she got up from her chair and walked over to the bed, picked up Pandaroo, and hugged him before she kissed the top of his head.

"Got to go, guy," she called as she retrieved her bagged choir robe from the closet. I'll be home before midnight, Pandaroo, so don't wait up!" She laughed as she closed the door after leaving her room, singing softly as she descended the stairs.

'You just might turn into something special tonight, Kim: Good luck,' he was still a bit worried about her, but he couldn't put a finger on it….

--

The door flung open, and the hall light glare was overshadowed by the nebula-like glow of the young woman entering her room, both dancing and singing.

She took one looks at Pandaroo on her bed and grinned evilly.

"Pandaroo, you've been a very, very, very bad boy!" she wagged her finger at him.

'M'OI?'

"You knew, didn't you?" Kim flashed the ring on her finger, and Pandaroo grinned inside.

'_**YES! **_

'_**WAY TO GO, RON-MAN!'**_

"He told me I looked like an angel, I sang like an angel, and that I had been his angel ever since Pre-K," Kim, by now, had started to re-streak her face with tears. "He said that, after the Diablos, this past summer, and the past few weeks, he realized that he could lose me at any moment.

"That's when I realized that I could lose Ron at any moment, Pandaroo, and that thought shook my very soul: a life without Ron Stoppable, without my BFBF, without the one person who always had my back, was no life at all.

"Then, Pandaroo, he did it, but the way that only Ron Stoppable could have done it: he dropped to one knee, Rufus came out of his pocket, carrying the ring box," Kim was now laughing and crying at the same time, "and then he told me he wanted his angel, forever.

"Then, Pandaroo, he said those words that are now part of my soul, forever:

"'Kimberly Ann Possible, will you marry me?'"

'So, silly, what did you do?'

"I pulled Ron to his feet and assaulted his lips and tongue so he couldn't change his mind and say he was kidding about the proposal. I did figure out, though, that he wasn't going to change his mind when he asked me 'So, I take it your answer is a "Possible" yes?'

"'Yes, my Ron, I will marry you,' I told him, and then I told him how I felt:

"'You've put up with me for all these years, even when I've ignored you and abused your friendship, and you accepted my apologies for treating you like crap, and you gave me an afternoon at the bench like I'd never had before, and you gave Jocelyn so much love that you didn't have to give: Why, Ronald Dean Stoppable, would you ever even think that I might be so stupid to say 'no' to you?

"'I've loved you since Pre-K; you were the only one of us smart enough to recognize it, but no more,' and my voice had gotten even softer and gentler. 'I want you, Ron,'" I told him as I brushed his lips, 'to be my forever mate.'

"And, then, Pandaroo, I was really, really wicked: "And, by the way," I gave him the 'look,' "'there's still fireworks,'" and I pulled his smiling face into mine and, I swear, I heard the explosions all over again."

Then, Kim's entire countenance changed from happiness to a sorrow that frightened Pandaroo from his ears to the tip of his tail.

"But, Pandaroo, while I drove home, I realized that, for the first time in my life, I had made a horrible mistake: I love Ron, but I don't deserve him," Kim stood, shaking, and her tears began to flow ever stronger.

"That's when I realized, Pandaroo, that I had to go: we have to go," and Kim quickly changed her clothes, throwing the choir robe on the bed, removing her dress, donning a pair of jeans and a MHS sweatshirt, reached into her closet and pulled out one of her pre-packed 'mission bags,' slung it over her shoulder, slipped on her mission gloves, and reached down and picked up Pandaroo. She walked over to her desk and reached for the cactus, but she stopped and blew it a kiss instead.

"Let's go, Pandaroo," she said softly as she turned off the light to her room, closed the door the final time, and headed down the stairs of the vacant house.

"I'm sorry, Mom, Dad, Jim, Tim, but it has to be this way: I'd only hurt Ron if I stayed, and he doesn't deserve that," she announced to the house as she opened the front door and headed out.

Pandaroo was so stunned that he couldn't say anything as Kim placed him in the car, buckled him in the front sear, tossed her bag in the back seat, and got in to leave her life, forever.

--

Kim started the Sloth, backed it out of the driveway, and headed toward the subdivision exit. She turned just before she got there and headed down the street to the one place where she knew she had to go before she left Middleton, forever.

That's when the radio played a familiar tune and Kim turned up the volume. It was that song from the movie "Enchanted".

"You're in my arms,

And all the world is gone,

The music playing on for only two.

So close together:

And when I'm with you,

So close to feeling alive.

"A life goes by,

Romantic dreams must die,

So I bid mine goodbye and never knew

So close was waiting, waiting here with you.

And now forever I know

All that I want is to hold you

So close.

So close to reaching that famous happy end,

Almost believing this one's not pretend.

Now you're beside me and look how far we've come

So far we are so close.

How could I face the faceless days

If I should lose you now?

We're so close

To reaching that famous happy end

And almost believing this one's not pretend

Let's go on dreaming though we know we are

So close

So close

And still so far...

The song ended as the Sloth approached their spot: the playground, where they had spent so many good times together.

She pulled up in a parking spot, turned off the ignition, and sat, staring at the swings and at the tree. She reached across and picked up Pandaroo and climbed out of the car for one last swing.

"Pandaroo, do you remember this place?" Kim smiled.

'Kim, are you insane!?' Pandaroo finally was able to speak after being in shock over what Kim had said and done.

"We used to come here with Ron and play…good times, good times," she smiled through the tears that were still falling from her face.

She sat on the swing, holding Pandaroo, and her tears began to fall like a summer shower as she rocked gently back and forth, slowly moving more and more in the swing, her eyes closed.

She heard a sound, and she opened her eyes and looked in the direction:

Ron was on the swing next to her. He was wearing his mission wear, and his face was wet with tears, as well.

"KP," he smiled, but Pandaroo could tell that it was hurting him to see her.

"Ron," she replied.

They swung silently for a few moments, and then Ron stopped his swing and reached over, stopping Kim's.

The look on Ron's face was comprehension when he said, "Kim, I made the biggest mistake of my life."

Kim's jaw dropped, and Ron realized what he'd said.

"No, Kim: not my asking you to marry me! I love you more than life itself, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but I can't do that to you: I don't deserve you, my darling. I was on my way out of town, forever, when I saw the Sloth parked here.

"I've been nothing but problems for you ever since we met, and I have no idea what I was thinking when I asked you to marry me: you deserve someone so much better than me. So, keep the ring, and I'll leave, and you never have to see me or put up with me, ever again.

"I love you, Kimberly Ann Possible," he said with so must pain on his face that even Pandaroo wanted to cry, "I love you so much, KP, that it hurts, but I can't hurt you any more, and that's all I would do if I married you. I'm not good enough for you," he tried to continue, but Kim put her index finger on his lips and smiled.

"Ron, we're a couple of doofuses," she started, and he grinned.

"KP, isn't that doofi?"

"RON!" she laughed out loud and she continued.

"Ron, I was leaving town because I don't deserve you," Kim started to cry, and Ron looked shocked.

"You…don't deserve the sidekick, KP?"

"NO, Ron, I don't deserve the one man, besides my father, who has loved me, unconditionally, almost every moment of my life. I've treated you like crap, I've dated other guys when you wanted to be with me, I've laughed at you, I've treated you like no person should ever be treated, I've drug you around the world, I've belittled you, and you've taken it all, Ron," by now, Kim's sobs were audible even to passers-by on the road, but no one pulled over.

"I'm sorry, Ron: I do love you, but I don't deserve you," she finished, and Ron-

LAUGHED?

"KP, do you hear yourself? I made you the laughingstock of Middleton High School because you hung around me all the time. You could have dumped me, but you didn't."

"I made you dump Justine for me, Ron,' Kim reminded him, and Ron smiled.

"And, she's already way past that, Kim: ask Big Mike," and Kim blushed.

"Then, you took me along to places where I could only dream of going, and I was with the most beautiful woman in the world, and you're apologizing to me? KP, I should have paid you millions just to be seen in public anywhere near you for even five seconds, let alone be able to hold your hand.

"And, one kiss, from you?' Ron smiled, and Kim's heat broke. "My Naco royalties couldn't cover that. There isn't enough gold in the entire _**world**_ to cover the cost of a KP kiss." Ron gave her a Ronshine smile, and Kim smiled through her tears.

"Kim, I should be thanking you for even being willing to be seen with me."

"Ron, it's you who I should be thanking for being seen with me," Kim replied, and Ron's puzzled look grew even bigger.

"Justine knew, Tara knew, Marcella knew, Crystal knew; heck, Ron, even Bonnie knew before I did that you were in love with me and that I was in love with you.

"Even Rufus knew before I knew I loved you," and Rufus crawled out of Ron's pocket, smiled at Kim, and blew his nose before re-entering the pocket.

"Pandaroo knew how I felt before I told you, Kim," Ron smiled, his tears flowing freely by now.

"Pandaroo?"

'Uh-oh….I think I'm in trouble.'

"I told him before the cactus, Kim," Ron smiled, and Kim grinned.

"We are a pair, Ron," she grinned and reached for his hand.

"Well, there's only one thing we can do, KP: we have to stay together so we can protect each other from ourselves," Ron replied, and Kim laughed as he took her hand in his.

"Seriously, Kim: I need someone to tell me when I'm being a doofus, and you need someone to tell you when to stop coaching," Ron grinned, and Kim grimaced; "it's the perfect match of crazies like us.

"So, what do you say, KP: you and me, against the world?" Ron squeezed her hand, and Kim felt her stomach flutter.

A bright flash of light in the sky was followed by a loud rumble of thunder, and then it happened: thundersnow.

The snow began to fall like rain, huge flakes that could cover your hands.

Kim looked at Ron, and Ron looked at Kim.

Kim stood and then knelt in front of Ron, still sitting on the swing.

"Ronald Stoppable, I love you, and there is only one way that we found each other here tonight," and she pointed her index finger straight up in the air.

"I care for you so much that I was willing to leave to make you happy, and you care so much for me that you were willing to leave to make me happy. Well, I propose that we stay together and make each other even happier.

"Ronald Dean Stoppable, will you marry me?"

Kim looked up into the chocolate-brown pools of love, and they smiled back an unspoken 'Yes' as Ron reached out his hand to pull Kim to her feet as he stood, and they kissed away their fears, their unspoken fright, their insecurities, and they separated as a couple, standing in the middle of thundersnow.

Ron looked at Kim and grinned.

'Guys? If you don't mind, I'm getting wet out here. Can we finish this somewhere warmer? It's dropped 20 degrees in the last 10 minutes!'

"KP, I have just one question: is it Mr. Ronald Stoppable-Possible, or just Ronald Possible?"

"No, Ron," she smiled and laughed as Ron caught a face-full of snowflake, "it's Mrs. Kimberly Ann Possible-Stoppable."

"But, you're the hero."

"I may be, Ron, but you will be my husband," and she kissed his nose. "Now, BFBFF, let's get Pandaroo inside, go to MoonNickel's, and figure out what we're going to tell your parents and mine," she reached out and took his hand in hers as she picked up Pandaroo in the other.

"You brought Pandaroo with you? You really were going to leave, weren't you?"

"You brought Rufus, too."

"Wow."

"Wow, indeed."

They walked to their cars, and Ron stopped dead in his tracks and groaned.

"Oh, man, I'm dead!"

"Why, BFBFF?"

"If your dad goes into your room and sees Pandaroo gone, he's calling the Police first and the Space Center second," Ron groaned.

"What do we do, KP?"

"I left the Kimmunicator on my desk; let's go to Wade's house and see if Dad has called anyone yet. Maybe we can stop the calls.

"Good thinking, KP," and Ron grinned. "Maybe I'll keep you around."

"I certainly hope so," Kim grinned and kissed his lips again. "Let's drop your car off and go to Wade's house.

"Got you back, KP," Ron called as he held the door open for her, and Kim got in the Sloth. Ron closed the door and got into his car.

"I'll always have your back, KP, my love," Ron whispered, and he started his engine.

"Pandaroo, we're staying," Kim said after starting the Sloth. "I know he loves me, and he'll always have my back," she smiled through her tears as the huge snowflakes continued to fall.

'That's wonderful, Kim, but would you turn on the heater, please? My fur is wet from the snow.

'_**PWEASE**_??'

--

**Author's afterward:**

--

A quick note from the story's protagonist:

I, Pandaroo, have authorized the following:

cpneb, to tell my story, what happened to me during Kim's graduation;

jakt, to write some of my more memorable stories about Kim and me, through the years.

A couple of quick notes: Kim will never admit it to anyone, but she loves the Frankie Valli song, and I like it, as well, so you'll see it referenced by my two storytellers, cpneb and jakt.

I would be extremely remiss if I didn't thank my fans out there for voting for this story in BOTH rounds of the Third Annual Fannie Awards. Even though _**My Eyes…**_ didn't win, your votes meant a lot to ja, kt, cpneb (yes, even the vote piggy: he was worse about votes than Joss is about the sparkling grape juice!), and especially to me: who would have ever thought that that a stuffed animal would gain a following?

Thank you so very much, all of my readers and followers …I still have some of that dang dust in my eye, that's the reason for the water coming from it….Roo hugs, for everybody!

And, by the way, I'm still cold! LOL!

--

Next, on _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

**Chapter 8: **_**Worked my fingers to the bone**_

--

Thank you, to all of you, for supporting us on this new journey.

Thanks again for reading, and please review.

--

All Rights Reserved. Kim Possible Characters © The Walt Disney Company, USA.

07/04/2008

Idea by K.T. and cpneb. Story by K.T, J.A. and cpneb.

Thanks to jakt and Star-Eva01for beta work. Their suggestions and thoughts are timely and appreciated, as always.


	9. 8: Worked my fingers to the bone

_**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

Disclaimer/Author's Notes: Kim Possible and all the characters of the show are owned by the Disney Company. The original lyrics to the songs referenced in this story and the music are the property of the respective authors, artists and labels. All other characters can be blamed on the author (he, however, is not responsible for all of their actions at all times, being barely responsible for himself most of the time).

This is a strictly not-for-profit, just-for-fun work.

Enjoy! Please read and review.

**A/N Forward: **

This began as a thought in both the heads of cpneb and kt (of jakt). A few phone calls, some emails, and the idea came brought forth into production.

This joint project between cpneb and jakt is the direct result of the request from a certain eleven year old; resistance was futile, indeed, as one simple question became the opening of the _**Birth, and Rebirth**_ arc.

cpneb will present the main story line, while jakt will presents other major components of the story as it is told.

"Let the adventure begin."

--

Previously, on _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

--

Needles came out of the ER, her mask still on.

Kim stood, and she squeezed Ron's hand as he stood.

"Nana, is Pandaroo all right?"

Dr. Esther Andrea Possible hesitated before she reached for her mask….

--

**Chapter 8: **_**Worked my fingers to the bone**_

--

...and she smiled as her mask came off.

"Kimberly Ann, your friend is a trouper: he made it through the operation with flying colors. We've repaired his heart, and he's better than ever."

Kim's tears were happy ones, and Ron's squeeze made it all worthwhile.

"When can I see him, Nana?"

"Give us about 10 minutes to get him to Recovery, Kimberly Ann, and we'll have him ready to get visitors in 30 minutes or less," Esther laughed. "Then, you all should be able to return to Middleton in good shape."

"Good shape," Bonnie whispered. "Kim?" she asked, and Kim turned and looked at her. "Have you been home?"

"Yes, I have, Bonnie," Kim squeezed Ron even tighter.

"Do you need a place to stay? No, wait: I'm the one who needs a place, now," Bonnie laughed.

"Why, Bonnie?" Tara asked.

"The reason I snuck back into the house, Tara: I walked out on my dad's last tirade, and I'm only going back to pick up the last of my clothes before I move out permanently."

"BONNIE!" Ron looked shocked. "What happened to make you leave?"

"Oh, not much: he just said that it was yours and Kim's fault that that the aliens were here in the first place, and he suggested that we should give you to them to get them to leave us alone," Bonnie stated matter-of-factly, and Ron's eyes glowed blue for a moment.

"Warhok had no intention of leaving, Bonnie," Ron replied.

"He was here to destroy the planet, regardless of whether or not we were in his custody or not," Kim added. She was shocked that someone was willing to sacrifice her and Ron for themselves.

"Bonnie, I'd offer you a place to stay, but..." Kim laughed, smiled and held her arms out. Bonnie stepped into her, and the two former best enemies hugged, each of them dealing with their own loss.

"Dr. Load, may I have a word with you?" Esther beckoned, and Wade stepped away from the group to speak with her.

Esther put her arms around Wade as they stepped away. "Wade, don't be too worried about Jocelyn: she's as stubborn and headstrong as her mother was when she was just married, and she's not quite as stubborn as either her father or James were when they were growing up. As much as she loves you, there is nothing that can come between the two of you, of that I'm certain."

Wade looked up, shocked. He didn't realize how much Joss and her Nana had talked, but he was now certainly glad that they had.

"Thank you, Esther," Wade looked up, and Esther could see the red in his eyes from the crying.

"Listen, now: go take care of all the ladies: I'm sure that they'll need some attention," Esther winked, and Wade laughed.

"Like I'd ever do anything to jeopardize my relationship with Joss," he laughed, and he stepped away, taking five steps, but he turned and ran back to Esther, slamming into her with a tight hug.

"Thank you, Dr. Possible, or everything," he hugged her tight.

"Wade, it's Esther, or Needles, please and thank you," Esther laughed and kissed the top of Wade's head. Wade gave her a final squeeze, and he returned to the group.

"That's Dr. Load?" Dr. Susan Nith asked, and Esther turned and nodded.

"Somehow, I expected him to be taller," Susan mused, and she and Esther laughed and headed to the recovery room.

--

Kim and Ron both walked into Recovery, and they couldn't help but laugh at the sight

The small room was painted to look like 'The Land, Down Under,' and eucalyptus trees were painted everywhere. Pandaroo was the lone occupant, and he was stretched out in a large basket, Bonnie's torn sleeve tucked into one side of the basket. He was covered from neck down with a bright blue blanket, and stitched on it was a sentence:

'Born to be wild.'

"They must know him pretty well," Ron laughed, and Kim punched him in the side and kissed his cheek.

"Wha-" Ron started as he turned his head, and Kim kissed his lips.

They smiled and held each other. The doctors and nurses in the room that had quietly followed them into the room, after a few moments, quietly applauded the couple, shocking them back to reality with a pair of red-faced grins.

"Kimberly Ann, he's ready to go," Esther laughed, "but, he might be a bit jealous of that last kiss."

--

I thought I heard someone walk over to my basket and whisper, "Pandaroo?"

'No, Bonnie, please, I'm a one-woman 'Roo.

"Tara, please, no: I'm taken.'

"Pandaroo?"

'Kim?' I felt groggy, but I recognized her voice and then I heard-

"Yes, Kimberly Ann, you can pick him up," Esther laughed, and Kim gingerly reached under me, scooped me up into her arms, and held me to her chest.

'I'd know that smell anywhere! Kim, I'm back!

'Dang, Nana, you're good: I don't feel a thing! You proceed, woman!'

"Pandaroo, I thought I'd lost you," Kim whispered, and my heart leapt at the sound of her voice: pained, hurting, and strong, all at the same time. "I thought I'd lost everything when that beam pulled me off the graduation stage."

'Now, wait just am ever-lovin'- Joey-pickin' minute...

'Beam?

'_**WHAT BEAM?'**_

"But, we're back now, and it's gonna be all right."

'_**We? Who's we? Girl, you've got some 'splainin'; to do!**_'

"Nana," I looked at Kim as she spoke, and she was looking at her smiling grandmother, in full surgeon's gown, "How can I ever repay you?"

"Think your friends would like some friends of their own, Kimberly Ann? I've got some Cuddle Buddies here that are looking for a home, and Pandaroo has been telling them all about your friends. Think your friends would like to help a bunch of homeless Cuddle Buddies find a home?"

Esther's grin was priceless.

--

"_**A CUDDLE BUDDY!!!! SHE WANTS TO GIVE ME A CUDDLE BUDDY???!!! **_

The high-pitched screams of four young women, morphing back into five-year-old girls, could be heard throughout the center, and the squeals were followed by the sounds of running.

The four young ladies slammed to a stop outside of the nursery window, huge grins on their faces. Their faces pressed against the window like children at Christmastime.

Needles came out, pushing a cart, and she walked over to Tara, first. "He wanted to know if it was all right if he could stay with you, Tara," she handed Tara an Armariffe. She smiled and nodded her agreement, hugging the Cuddle Buddy.

"He must have known I was looking at him," she grinned. "I was thinking just how adorable he was," she continued, and Needles nodded and moved over to Sarah, clapping her hands with glee like a 5-year-old at Christmas, but then she stopped and looked at Needles sadly.

"Not for me, please and thank you, but for Olivia: she needs someone more than I," she smiled, but Needles could read the smile.

"How about this one for Olivia," she reached onto the table and held up a Cuddle Buddy, "and, Sarah," she grinned and pointed at the Bearephant on the cart, "this one for you?"

"I love it, Esther, but what is this one?"

"It's a Kitpup: cute, cuddly, with fangs and claws just barely showing that will protect Olivia from her oncoming nightmares," Esther smiled sadly.

Sarah picked up the KitPup and hugged her tightly. "She's perfect for her, Esther, and I love mine, too," Sarah smiled.

Monique smiled at the cart. "And, who is this?" she reached down and lifted one into her arms.

"He's an OstriHorse," Esther grinned.

"Well, at least he's dressed sharply," Monique observed: the OstriHorse was wearing a Club Banana shirt and jacket.

"He's really a clothes horse, Monique," Esther laughed, and Kim groaned.

"On him, it works," Monique hugged him tightly.

Bonnie wasn't sure which of the three Cuddle Buddies that remained on the cart that she wanted: the OtterFly, KangaCat, or RhinoGoat. She loved them all, and she didn't want to make a decision and hurt any one of them.

"Bonnie?" Bonnie lifted her head, and Esther smiled. "Have you made a decision?"

"I can't decide, Mrs. Possible," Bonnie replied honestly, and Esther saw her trying to keep her tears from welling up. "I love them all," she whispered, "I want them all, but I can't have them all."

"Why not?" Esther asked her, and Bonnie's face went to a massive shocked grin.

--

Kim held Pandaroo tenderly as she watched Bonnie, happier than she had ever seen her, trying to hold all three Cuddle Buddies at once and not make any of them feel left out.

'This is definitely not Queen B territory,' Kim thought, feeling Ron's touch. She smiled.

"If this was all it would have taken, Kim, I would have figured out a way to buy Bonnie a Cuddle Buddy, years ago," Ron said, wrapping his arms around Kim's waist.

"You would have done that for her, Ron?" Kim turned her head slightly to look over her shoulder at hi, so she didn't see Bonnie's head jerk up with a start at Ron's comment.

'Of course he would, Kim: I'd have thought you'd have figured that out by now.'

"Of course, KP: you and Bonnie were sorta friends, back in the day before the two of you got into cheering. If I had known, I could have found a way to earn some more money and buy her a Cuddle Budd. I definitely would have if I had known how happy it would have made her. She deserves some happiness, KP; after this summer, and this past year, it looks like she's been trying to catch up on 12 years of missed good times," Ron observed.

--

'Ron, you don't know just how right you are,' I heard Bonnie's thoughts, somehow, as she hugged Otterfly, then KangaCat. 'Kim, you don't know how lucky you are to have a friend like Ron, and now you're engaged to him. If I'd had half a brain, I would have tried to get him, but…' she sighed sadly.

'Bonnie, you're a fine girl,' came from KangaCat, and I saw him smile. I could tell that Bonnie heard his voice echo in her head, and she looked up. There was no one who could have said that close enough to her, except…she looked down at the KangaCat, grinned, and pulled him closer to her and hugged him tightly.

'I know that it couldn't have been you that said that, but 'Thank You,' anyway,' she thought, kissing the top of his head.

'You're welcome, 'Bon-Bon,'' he laughed. She looked surprised at his comment, but then she smiled and hugged him even tighter.

'Oh; I'm likin' this,' I heard KangaCat say and saw Bonnie smile. I just laughed.

--

"Wade, are you all right?" Wade looked up in surprise to see Will, smiling and holding hands with Lindsey.

"I'm much better now. Thank you, Agent Du," he responded, looking a bit confused at the picture of a smiling Will Du.

"Will, please," Will grinned. "Even Joss calls me that, now," he added, and Wade's right eyebrow rose slightly.

"She does?"

"Indeed, and she didn't even threaten me, this time," Will laughed, and then he winced.

Lindsey caught his change in tone. "Are you all right? Is the bandage too tight?"

"Bandage?" Wade looked at Lindsey, then Will.

"Just a small scrape from the fight, Wade," Will replied.

"Small!" Lindsey snorted. "Wade, he took a glancing shot from one of the pods when one of the Avatars saved his life."

"Tornado saved _you_?" Wade's eyebrows rose even higher, and Will smiled.

"He turned as the shot came and took it for me," Will replied.

"You impressed a Tornado, and Joss? I'm going to have to rethink our relationship," Wade joked.

"I already did, Wade," Lindsey grinned, reaching behind Will and pinching him, but then she gave a motherly glare.

"William Du!" she said, and Wade almost laughed, "Why didn't you tell me that you were hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt…much," he responded weakly.

"I'm getting you back home and onto that couch of yours," she said, and then blushed when she heard Wade and Ron both laugh. "So you can rest!" she shouted, turning redder by the moment.

"Yes, ma'am," Will laughed, and Lindsey squeezed his hand.

'Real soon,' Will promised himself as he squeezed her hand back.

Wade watched them walk away, but he was startled by a hand on his shoulder.

"Wade," the voice spoke, and he looked up to see Esther standing with her hand on him.

"Yes, Mrs. Possible?"

"Wade, you ever call me that again, I'll go all 16 on you," she grinned, and Wade now knew where Kim came up with the phrase.

"Yes, Ma'am, Esther," he smiled, and she snorted. "All right, 'Needles,'" he grinned.

"Your mama raised you right, but I'm not here for that: I wanted to thank you for everything you've done for my granddaughters, both Kim and Jocelyn," she smiled, but and caught the reaction from her mentioning of Joss' name.

"Remember what I told you, Wade? Well, add 'stop sleeping with other women' to that list, and you'll be good to go," she smirked, and Wade planted his face in his hands and groaned at the same time. "Kidding, Wade, just kidding: I know my granddaughter: she's so upset about her reaction that she can't think straight. That's why she didn't come down for Kim's graduation. Just let things take their course, and I know you two will be fine."

"You told me that already, but are you sure?" Wade grinned.

"Trust Nana: she loves you; if she doesn't take you back, I'll take you myself," Esther laughed. "I could use a younger man in my life right about now," she added, and Wade laughed and hugged the senior matriarch of Clan Possible.

She felt a twinge in her side, but she chalked it up to too much fighting. 'I've gotta get back into shape: this just proved how much fun I've missed,' she thought as she hugged Wade and ruffled the top of his head.

--

We were now flying back, and the plane was filled with extra CuddleBuddies for more people in the Tri-Cities area…as well as my newly-adopted friends.

"I saw Justine and Mike Cotton walking toward the cafeteria before we left, and I saw Steve Barkin blow her a kiss," Monique told everyone. She was bringing them up on the latest news from the school for the past five minutes or so,

"_**STEVE BARKIN????**_" came from Kim, Ron, Bonnie, and Tara.

"Yeah," she grinned. "I asked him about PDA, and he said that, after what he and Justine had just been through, he had no problems with PDA anymore."

"_AWWWW, MANNN_," Ron groused. "Why does all the good stuff have to happen after we graduate, KP?"

"What did they do, Mon?" Kim asked, ignoring Ron's grousing. Inquiring minds want to know all, and I am neither a slacker nor a lazy 'Roo in my studies.

"Oh, not much; just took out over 15 Pods, working together as a team," Monique replied, and I watched Kim's jaw dropped.

"Justine?" she looked surprised, and Ron laughed.

"Looks like all the ladies that had a thing for the Ron-man are bon-diggity Pod killers," he smiled but didn't duck fast enough when Kim's 'love swing' connected with the back of his head.

"Gotcha," she smirked, and he moaned a bit as he rubbed the back of his head.

'Ron, Ron, Ron: you've got to learn to look out for the 'love'.'

"Kim?" I heard Wade call her just after Ron made his comment, and he sounded like he was not even here.

Kim looked up. He had come up from the rear of the plane and was holding a folder in his right hand.

Kim looked up. I knew he had been (more or less) hiding in the rear of the plane and working furiously on his laptop since even before we took off. I didn't know why he had done that; but, here he was now, standing a bit of a distance back from Kim and holding a folder in his right hand. I couldn't place the expression on his face, but I at least knew it wasn't a good one

She read his face, though. "Wade, what's wrong?" she asked, standing with me still in her arms.

"Kim, would you do me a favor, please and thank you," Wade laughed, but I'd never heard that much hurt in his voice before.

"Sure, Wade: what is it?"

"Would you read this for me?" He thrust the folder forward towards her. "I wrote it for Jocelyn, and I want to know if it's good enough for her, to keep her from leaving me."

Kim took it and smiled. "Of course, Wade: anything for a friend," and we followed him to the rear of the plane where he'd been sitting, all alone, and sat.

Kim opened the folder. "Poetry, Wade?" She looked at the title and smiled.

"Well," he pulled at his collar as Kim began to read.

She let out a hoot that got the attention of the entire plane. She looked up and smiled sweetly, "just thought of something funny, that's all," she said, and the conversations restarted.

"Wade!" she whisper-shouted with a huge laugh on her face, and Wade grinned.

"You didn't like the first poem?"

"'Roses are red,

"'Strawberries, too.

"'Joss loves me:

"'Woo-hoo, extra hoo?'" she laughed.

"I want her to laugh, Kim; maybe that way, she'll stay with me," Wade whispered, looking like he was going to cry.

'Wade, why would Joss leave you? She's got it as bad for you as Kim does for Ron.'

"Wade, she loves you too much to ever leave you, even over what happened," Kim smiled.

'Happened? What happened? Somebody wanna tell me just what in the eucalyptus tree is going on here? Kim, I love you to death, but we are going to have to have a very long talk….'

Kim continued to read and Wade fidgeted in his seat.

I saw Kim smile as she read, and then she sniffled. She put me down for a moment to get a tissue from her bag and blow her nose before she picked me up again and continued reading.

"Wade, that was beautiful," she closed the folder and turned to him.

She chuckled, and she turned me in his direction:

Wade was asleep, leaning just a bit on Kim's left arm. He had a smile on his face, but I could see more than a little bit of worry in it there at the same time. He looked so much like a little kid and like a man at the same time that it hurt to watch him.

Kim held me gently and leaned over. She gently kissed his forehead, then backed away and shook her head. "That won't do, my friend, my almost-BIL," she laughed quietly.

She leaned over and gently brushed Wade's lips with her own. "I will always love you, my partner, my friend," she whispered as she pulled her lips back.

She laughed quietly when she saw Wade lick his lips, heard him whisper, "I do love strawberries, Sweet Tea," and smile as he seemed to visibly relax, the worry literally vanishing from his face.

"Wade, you will always be my partner, my friend," Kim smiled though the tears she was unsuccessfully holding back. "Joss will come around: I know my emulatin' cousin," she grinned and took his hand in hers, leaning into the seat and closing her eyes.

She opened one eye and gave me 'the look', winked at me, then grinned as she said, "now, don't you start jellin', Pandaroo: you're my secret love." She brought her right hand up and kissed her fingertips, then placed them on my lips before she closed her other eye, and fell asleep almost immediately.

I sat there for a few minutes as she held me loosely in her arms, savoring Kim's kiss, before I heard Ron's chuckle. I felt him lift me out of Kim's arms and placed me on the table next to her and facing him as he sat, the big grin on his face hiding something. He could hide a lot behind that grin of his, but he never really could from Kim or me.

"Pandaroo, I destroyed two beings," he stated simply while his face turned serious, and the shock of his statement kept me silent.

"I violated His law, Pandaroo: 'Thou shalt not kill,'" he said, and he dropped his head into his hands and quietly sobbed.

'You're out to action just a little bit, just a few days, and the whole world starts to come to an end. Next thing you're going to tell me is that dogs and cats are living together, Shego and Drakken are dating now, Ned has a girlfriend, we've had an alien invasion, and Rufus has sworn off cheese permanently and is secretly in love with that hairless cat, Debutante.

'Kim, we so have to have that talk. Ron: a killer? No way… Unless…'

He looked up at me and smiled. "I didn't say who or how, did I?" he grinned.

I knew that for him to even think that way that there had to be a very good reason, so I sat on my tail and waited for it to come, and here it comes….

"Warhok and Warmonga: they were the two aliens that we were fighting. They had hurt Kim, and I heard Warhok brag about giving Warmonga Kim's spine as a trophy, and I was furious. That's when the MMP kicked in,' he grinned.

I knew that there just had to be a reason for him to be thinking that way. After hearing what he just told me, I couldn't help myself: 'let them have it,' I thought. But, that's not right, and I knew it. I was and wasn't surprised to see Ron's eyes flash a deep dark blue for a few seconds before returning to their chocolate brown.

"I fought them," he continued, "and I was winning, much to their surprise, when they came in for a final strike. I grabbed them and threw them into the air. I heard Warmonga yell 'FRACKLE,' saw a flash, and they struck their falling spacecraft." He paused for just a moment, gathering his words, and then he said the two words that were at the root of the pain I could feel in his heart:

"It exploded," he said.

No, he hadn't killed wantonly: he had done what he thought, what he knew he had to do to protect Kim. I knew what he had to hear, what would set things right again for him.

'Ron: He says not to kill: you did not kill anyone. You did not kill them on purpose. You were defending yourself and Kim,' I reminded him

He looked up with a thought on his face.

'Wow: Ron, thinking: that's _gotta_ leave a mark,' I couldn't help myself but to laugh.

"But, I didn't kill them, even though a part of me thought about wanting them dead when I heard what they were going to do to my Kim," he smiled. Ron then closed his eyes, but then one of them popped open and gave me a wink. "Thanks, guy: I knew I could talk to you. I was so scared, Pandaroo: scared of dying, but even more scared of losing KP, that I knew I just had to do _something_ to save her. My fear melted like a pile of fresh Naco cheese in the noonday summer sun, and I just grabbed them and swung.

"Maybe He will forgive me." He whispered the last as he lifted me from the table and placed me in her arms. She shifted for a moment, hugging me tight for a second and then holding me just tight enough to ensure that I wouldn't fall. I watched Ron watch her and me for a moment before he went back to the other side of the table and sat down again. He looked back at me and her, and I barely heard his voice once again, his whisper, his plea, his prayer:

"Maybe He will forgive me." he whispered and closed his eyes, once again, falling asleep almost as fast as Kim did.

--

"Pandaroo, look," I heard Kim's voice, and I could tell the energy, the excitement in it. She held me up to the window, and I could see that we had landed and were pulling up to a spot on the tarmac…

A 'Possible' spot (ok, I couldn't resist: I've been around Ron for far too long), a spot occupied by James and Anne Possible, and Slim and Joss Possible.

"Daddy," she whispered, and I felt a tear hit the top of my head as she squeezed me.

"Joss came for him: I knew she would," she added. She leaned over and whispered to Wade: "She's here, Wade, and she's not packing any heat that I can see."

Wade's eyes snapped open, he grinned, but then he frowned.

"I can't tell her, Kim: I know she hates me and she never wants to be seen with me again, let alone be with me," he sniffled.

'Dang: human love is certainly confusing, if not complicated.'

The jet pulled to a stop, and I heard the front hatch open.

"Hey, Joss," I heard Sarah Best call out.

"Sarah, where's Wade?" I love Joss' voice, but I could hear hurt and worry in hers, as well: the same sounds I had heard in Wade's

"He's inside, but he's scared to come out: he's afraid you still hate him and that you're going to yell at him," Sarah replied.

'Oh, snap.'

"_**SNAKE MUFFINS**_!"

'Here she comes,' I laughed as I heard the boot-steps of one of the most feared creatures on the face of this, or any, planet: a rampaging Possible redhead slamming up the stairs.

'This could get interesting, or even gnarly.'

--

**Author's afterward:**

--

A quick note from the story's protagonist:

I, Pandaroo, have authorized the following:

cpneb, to tell my story, what happened to me during Kim's graduation;

jakt, to write some of my more memorable stories about Kim and me, through the years.

This time, though, they teamed up on me. It was a surprise, but I think it was all right. They didn't leave any marks, and 'neb didn't take any of my leaves.

A couple of quick notes: Kim will never admit it to anyone, but she loves the Frankie Valli song, and I like it, as well, so you'll see it referenced by my two storytellers, cpneb and jakt.

I would be extremely remiss if I didn't thank my fans out there for voting for this story in BOTH rounds of the Third Annual Fannie Awards. Even though _**My Eyes…**_ didn't win in year three, your votes meant a lot to ja, kt, cpneb (yes, even the vote piggy: he was worse about votes than Joss is about the sparkling grape juice!), and especially to me: who would have ever thought that that a stuffed animal would gain a following?

Thank you so very much, all of my readers and followers …I still have some of that dang dust in my eye, that's the reason for the water coming from it….Roo hugs, for everybody!

--

Next, on _**Birth, and Rebirth 00: My Eyes Adored You**_

**Chapter 9:**_**Made myself a name…**_

**--**

Thank you, to all of you, for supporting us on this new journey.

Thanks again for reading, and please review.

--

All Rights Reserved. Kim Possible Characters © The Walt Disney Company, USA.

2009/07/25

Idea by K.T. and cpneb. Story by K.T, J.A. and cpneb.

Thanks to jakt and Star-Eva01for beta work. Their suggestions and thoughts are timely and appreciated, as always.

And, lest I forget, my very special thank to KitPup for allowing the use of her 'likeness' for such a tale as this. Thank you, dear lady, and may you be a source of strength for your self and others, much as your Cuddle Buddy will be for Olivia.


End file.
